OPEN AND DISTANCE E-LEARNING RESEARCH AT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA

OPEN AND DISTANCE E-LEARNING RESEARCH AT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA Author: Dr KJ de Beer Director: Academic Support and Research GLOSSARY AAU – Association of African Universities ACCC – African Curriculum Coordinating Committee ACDE – African Council for Distance Education ACU – Association of Commonwealth Universities ADEA – Association for the Development of Education in Africa ANIHE – African Network for Innovations in Higher Education API – African Partner Institution AQUANET – African Quality Assurance Network AU – African Union AVU – African Virtual University CHE – Council for Higher Education. CHEC – Cape Higher Education Consortium CIDA – Canadian Independent Development Agency CoL – Commonwealth of Learning COREVIP – Conference of Rectors, Vice Chancellors and Presidents CUT – Central University of Technology, Free State CUTMOPP – CUT Manual of Policies and Procedures DEASA – Distance Education Association of Southern Africa DoE – Department of Education EFA –Education for All FETI – Further Education and Training Institute FOCODLA – Federation of Commonwealth Open and Distance Learning Associations FSHEC – Free State Higher and Further Education Consortium HE – Higher Education HEI – Higher Education Institution HEQC – Higher Education Quality Committee HESA – Higher Education South Africa ICAE – International Council for Adult Education ICT – Information and Communication Technology IDRC – International Development Research Centre IICBA – International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa INASP – International Network for the Availability of Science Publications IT – Information Technology MDG – Millennium Development Goal MINEDAF – Ministers of Education in Africa NADEOSA – National Association of Distance Education Organisations of South Africa NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration NEPAD – New Partnership for Africa’s Development ODeL – Open and Distance e-Learning ODL – Open and Distance Learning OL – Open Learning OUHK – Open University Hong Kong PAREN – Promoting African Research and Education Networking RETRIDAL – Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning SAARDHE – South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education SAADA – South African Academic Development Association SAARC – South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SADC – Southern African Development Community SARUA – South African Regional Universities Association SASCE – Southern African Society for Co-operative Education UAD – Unit for Academic Development UFS – University of the Free State UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNHCR – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund VIHEAF – Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa WCHE – World Conference on Higher Education ABSTRACT The title of this paper was directly stimulated by the 11th Association for African Universities General Conference held during February 2005 in Cape Town. At this conference for the HE sector in Africa, commitments were made by both the president of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki, and the minister of National Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, in view of assisting the networking process of the AAU within the NEPAD agreement of the AU. In the context of the SADC protocol, which had already opened academic exchange agreements, SARUA was established on 20 February 2005 to reflect the aspirations of NEPAD and the ideals of the SADC protocol on Education and Training, especially networks within higher education (AAU, 2005). However, the huge backlog in financial resources will also force universities to share facilities and to seek collaborative opportunities. Many challenges other than budgetary constraints and sharing the limited human resources, as well as political and ethnic conflicts, civil wars, HIV/Aids and corruption, can be quoted here, although these do not fall within the parameters of the philosophy but merely enhance the fact of sharing the HE infrastructure of the continent. Fact of the matter is that the philosophy of OL provides the only strategy for aligning and supporting existing structures such as the SADC protocol, SARUA, ACDE, DEASA, NADEOSA, SAARDHE, SADA and SASCE (Cf. ACDE, 2005). International organisations such as UNESCO and COL will de jure support the fostering and implementation of ODL policies within the broader educational and human resource development strategies and policies of member nations (AAU, 2005). Subsequently ACDE, NADEOSA and SAARDHE already presented conferences in 2005 with an Africanised approach. Sub-themes entailed the visions for a true African university, the Africanisation of the curriculum, management information linkages, indigenous knowledge research, internationalisation of African HE, and last but not least, joint staff and academic development (Cf. SAARDHE, 2005). It is inevitable that no university can build its corporate image outside the above-mentioned infrastructure, because such a university will not be acknowledged by the people or by international organisations. Even quality assurance practices will be Africanised within AQUANET between quality assurance agencies. Some of the requirements will be the accessibility of the programmes of African universities, articulation issues, mobility, the recognition of prior learning to build academic credits, and quality standards for needs-driven academic curricula. Within the philosophy of OL, PAREN will eventually become the motto for change on the continent. Change is not static, and new perspectives are continually necessary for modern development and capacity building (Pandor, 2005). One of the revolutionary slogans in Africa is: “Education is not a privilege, it is a right!” In this sense it becomes a philosophical matter of an open, democratic, transparent and user-friendly system. Teaching and Learning per se is never static, but is forever taking on new shapes, structures, modes and qualities. Long-term teaching and learning becomes a lifelong learning experience with no exact deadlines, semesters, academic year-end assessments or physical infrastructures. Subsequently government policies constantly have to be adapted and promulgated to suit the needs of new HE models. (Cf. CUT, 2005b). Therefore the National Plan of the South African Department of Education (DoE, 2000) enhances the ideas of ODL to co-operate with other HEIs in developing a national network of learning centres that would facilitate access and coordinated support systems, especially to reduce duplication and overlap in programme and service provision (DoE, 2000). Also, in this respect, national and provincial collaboration between HE and FETIs are in place. At micro level, the CUT’s Academic Development Plan (CUT, 2005a) also provides for flexible learning modes that form part of the recurriculation process. It also provides for a continuum of development cycles in recurriculation, and as such it becomes a continuation of research, implementation, evaluation, adaptation and re-training of the trainer process. Very important, though, is that the content of the curriculum has to be Africanised in the restructuring process. Eventually the philosophy of OL must empower both students and academics to gain control over their professional lives (Cf. CUT, 2005e). Therefore the core definition of OL reads: “Open learning policies and practices that permit entry to learning with no or minimum barriers with respect to age, gender or time constraints and with recognition of prior learning.” These policies need not be part of a distance education system but are complementary to it, according to De Beer and Bezuidenhout (2006). Why the philosophy of open learning? The uninformed reader may ask: “Why the philosophy of open learning?” The answer is very simple: “Because it is not a method, but an educational philosophy.” It is an open approach towards learning, and in holistic terms it means that the whole approach to HE is greater than the individual methodologies, which may be: • Co-operative (group) learning in class; • Co-operative education as in experiential learning, or in-service training as in off-campus real-life exposure to technical job environments; • e-Learning for both on-campus and off-campus learning opportunities; • Interactive video conferencing for off-campus learners at regional learning centres or satellite campuses with video backup copies for full-time students; • First-generation distance education (correspondence courses); • Second-generation distance learning (dual-contact or tutorial sessions) (De Beer, 1995); • Third-generation distance education (education technology such as web-based, video-based or computer-based education, or one of the variety of interactive electronic overhead projectors and edu-walls with satellite linkups in collaboration with a diversity of higher education institutional networks); • Learner-centred philosophies within outcomes- and problem-based educational training known as progressivism (Cf. Sherritt, 1999); • Blended learning where a lecturer makes use of clippets or part of the above-mentioned methodologies (Badenhorst & De Beer, 2004); and • Flexible learning – according to the exact meaning of the word “flex”, i.e. to bend or fold – to access teaching, learning, assessment, articulation, mobility and recognition of prior learning experiences according to the needs of individual students or societies or specific sub-regions (Mostert, 1999). However, the most important fact to keep in mind when referring to the philosophy of OL is the political domain from which it is historically founded. It is all about an open democratic approach towards HE with all the revolutionary slogans for a free and open (read transparent) society. As stated earlier, education, i.e. also HE, is “not regarded as a privilege but a right” (UCT, 1990). In itself, HE is not a static and passive entity but rather a pacemaker in itself and for social change. HEIs also strive to keep abreast with economic and industrial development. For example, when formal adult education in the West started to take shape during the Industrial Revolution in an effort to train the labour force and create a literate society, it expanded along with rapid technological development in the 1920-1930 era. Eduard Lindeman and John Dewey formulated the “democratic, learner-centred philosophy of education, known as progressivism” (Sherritt, 1999). In the civil rights era of the 1960s Sizer linked the phases of national development to the different types of education. His premise, in coherence with technological development, was that education is contextual and under constant change according to the changes in society (Sherritt, 1999). Great Britain took the lead when introducing the British Open University. Soon OL was used to assist Hong Kong, a former British colony, to change from a manufacturing-based economy (“made in Hong Kong”) to a sophisticated technical First World city. (Sherritt, 1999). Eventually all the Commonwealth states followed suit to bridge the same problems as Hong Kong, but with the same fundamental adult education theory that subscribes to: • Nurturing antonymous, self-directed individuals to assist them to reach their highest potential; • Challenging the status quo so that adult (read andragogical) learners can become the pacesetters in society.(Cf. Bezuidenhout, 2005); • Linking labour and education according to workforce needs; • Redressing social inequities; and • Promoting an open and free democratic society (Sherritt, 1999). In the modern terminology the student of HE will still find these roots in the CoL and ICAE, linked to UNESCO in terms of: • Promoting peace; • The advancement of women; • Outreach to oppressed and marginalised people; • Political (civil) literacy and basic human rights; • Employment; and • Access to HE. Global impact on the HE curriculum Internal epistemological challenges to the HE curriculum are: • Post-modernism; and • Scientism (Luckett. 2001). Luckett (2001) propose an epistemically diverse curriculum that can be developed within the concept of OL to cover the following four important aspects: • The traditional cognitive learning of propositional knowledge; • Learning by doing for the application of disciplinary knowledge; • Learning experientially; and • Developing epistemic cognition as to be able to think reflexively and contextually about learning. The challenge to integrate the above knowledge production into a traditional content-based curriculum, which can only be achieved with an OL approach to address both the local and global trends in HE curriculation. For example, the curricula should be relevant to African students but also be relevant in global terms (Cf. Prinsloo, 2003) Because HE is shifting from being “supply-driven” to “demand driven”, it is facing pressure for greater relevance and accountability, the impact of globalisation and ICT, competition from new providers, and the need to be more self-sustaining. HEIs are seeking solutions to these challenges in open and flexible learning (better known in North America as distributed learning) and ICT. Educational opportunities are being extended across physical, political and socio-economic divides, and millions of learners around the globe now learn through these means (Dhanarajan, 2001). According to Latchem and Hanna (2002), “open and flexible learning is increasing access, reducing costs, and taking the first steps to place the learner at the centre of the educational transaction”. New forms of HE networks also assist equity-driven and marginalised institutions to benefit by an OL approach. “Third-wave” media networks (Cf. Toffler, 1980) open up and develop new configurations such as the World Bank’s AVU (http://www.avu.org) based in Nairobi to serve Anglophone and Francophone sub-Sahara. It forms part and parcel of the “new knowledge economy” (Latchem & Hanna, 2002). ACU envisages four possible scenarios for HEIs: • Global big business dominated by the strongest role players; • Trojan Horses to slip in international qualifications; • Community hubs; and • University/business hybrids (Latchem & Hanna, 2004). Academic staff development is therefore under tremendous pressure when HEIs tell academics to change, but still hold them accountable by the traditional curriculum (Cf. Latchem & Hanna, 2002). Subsequently the managing bodies of HEIs should consistently assist their units for academic development to re-engineer and reinvent curricula based on andragogical forms (Cf. Bezuidenhout, 2004) to ensure learning that is collaborative, applications-driven and constructivist. Unfortunately, there is still too much conflict between managerial levels (especially in African universities) to apply modern curricula, coupled with the “languid feedback loop of academic boards and committees which stops change taking place” (Latchem & Hanna, 2002). However, they are convinced that the academe is not inherently anti-change; in fact most lecturers are willing to embrace new initiatives as long as they are positive. In business-driven curricula, it is of course necessary to have a thorough student support system to assist in achieving the outcomes within an OL system. Tait (2000) states that elements of “client- or customer-centeredness” in the approach to students should be acknowledged – no longer in terms of the old references to students, but in a differentiated analysis regarding: • Age; • Gender; • Employment or unemployment; • Disposable income; • Educational background; • Geographical situation; • Special needs (disabilities); • Language; • Ethnic and cultural characteristics; and • Communications technology connectedness. Course writing must subsequently be adapted to provide an OL approach to student support, because worthwhile student support can only take place when the specific demands of students/clients are met. This includes the various forms of assessment (continuous or grading only), according to Tait (2000). Course demands may be for full-contact, dual-contact or Web-based teaching and learning. Tait (2000) makes the statement that little research has been done on student support within OL. In particular, what is less often recognised is the cognitive function of student support, certainly where these services include tutoring and assessment: “Such an understanding of the role of student support comes primarily out of social constructivist ideas that knowledge is in a real sense made and remade by participation in learning. Here the support of students mediates teaching embodied in courseware, then it clearly relates to learning, and thus to cognitive outcomes. It also and necessary relates to the objective of providing an environment where students feel at home, where they feel valued, and which they find manageable. In this way we can see that the three core functions are truly interrelated and interdependent.” Tait (2000) proposes that support services for students may typically be summarised as follows: • Enquiry, admission and pre-study advisory services; • Tutoring; • Guidance and counselling services; • Assessment of prior learning and credit transfer; • Study and examination centres; • Residential schools; • Library services; • Individualised correspondence teaching, including in some cases continuous assessment; • Record keeping, information management and other administrative systems; • Differentiated services for students with special needs of one sort or another, e.g. disability, geographical remoteness, prisoners; and • Materials supporting the development of study skills programme planning or career development. This can be explained by means of the following visual figure: CURRICULATION Course or programme demands STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS Geographical regions TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS Diverse schematic figuration images can be created to portray the OL infrastructure of HEIs, depending on their individual characteristics, because as Tait (2000) concludes: “There is no universal blueprint for the establishment of student support systems, open as they are to a range of variations across the characteristics of student cohorts, programmes of study, educational cultures and geographics in all their complexity.” Therefore OL and ICT are each a “disruptive technology that creates opportunities for new organisational models and strategies”, say Lutchem and Hanna (2002). OL curriculation will of course become more difficult, especially for support lecturers, as they strive to become acquainted with the changing methods of course delivery. Lecturers may experience it as “losing control of their students” (Brigss, 1999:317). Curriculation within open learning Curriculum delivery and open access to learning facilities go hand in glove. The following pattern of student utilisation was empirically researched by Briggs (1999:323) at the University of Leicester and gives a very clear picture of what is meant by the above statements on curricular integration. Management model for student use of an open-access learning facility COLLEGE INFRASTRUCTURE CURRICULUM DELIVERY PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL PROVISION PERCEIVED NEED IDENTIFICATION WITH THE FACILITY UTILISATION PREDISPOSITION OF THE STUDENT PRACTICAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS Model for student use of an open-access learning facility The data from the survey presented a situation in a state of change and adaptation, and a series of preliminary models was produced to map the forces at work. These were simplified into a final model for student use of an open-access learning facility, which identifies the five broad factors governing the dynamics of accessibility and utilisation: • The place of the facility within the college infrastructure, which can be seen as the basis for its purpose and management; • The physical and social provision within the facility itself, which provides the learning environment for the student; • The effectiveness of links with curriculum delivery, which make the facility’s activities relevant to both staff and students; • The practical and social constraints upon the student; and • The predisposition of the student to use the facility. A curriculum unit should therefore understand: • OL styles; • Flexibility in course delivery; • Variety of media; • Assessment processes; and • Dispersed learning environments. Consequently, says Briggs (1999:326), it is important that curriculum managers persist in liaising regularly with lecturing staff for development-convergent OL models on the micro level. In Africa, for example, at the macro level, an African Curriculum Coordinating Committee (ACCC) has been established (Dzvimbo, 2005:3). Technical know-how is exchanged amongst African universities and their international partners, especially within the CoL for curriculum planning, development and education in ODeL methodologies. Efforts to improve the quality of the curriculum also become a political desire to increase the provision for learning in developing countries, such as in Africa, and a social desire towards egalitarianism to ensure equity and equality of opportunity. (Dhanarajan, 2001:62). Open access Open access for students to an HEI forms the very core of the philosophy of OL – i.e. the widening of access with success for the system is open, but to ensure success applicants still have to be selected according to the HEI’s criteria. Every applicant is faced with two possibilities – acceptance or rejection. If it is rejection on academic grounds only, it may be fair, but when it is due to space and financial reasons it discriminates against potential students who might have become very successful academics. This is where the new strategic approach of African universities involves working with partners and supporting activities in partner institutions to enhance their institutional capacity in ODeL. Teaching methodologies thus have to be adapted for co-operations so that HEIs can increase equitable access to their demand-driven programs (Dzvimbo, 2005: 2). Due to the fact that the ODeL model is more cost effective, i.e. where additional infrastructures are not unnecessarily duplicated, more money will be available to finance the HEI entrance of very poor applicants with good academic points on the Swedish scale. ODeL, which has a proven track record of flexible and modular course provision, becomes a viable and sustainable option for converting the millions of Africans currently subsisting on less than US$ 1 per day from a liability into an asset that can become pivotal to socio-economic development, according to Dzvimbo (2005). The applicants rejected on the grounds of their academic points on the Swedish scale are also given a chance within an OL system to enter HE via a bridging programme. Multiple examples already exist in South Africa, such as FSHEC and others such as CHEC (2005) where academically deprived students can commence with their academic careers. Of course the open access philosophy still poses problems of its own. Often individual course groups or social groups could keep on demanding domination of a certain facility, and subsequently group behaviour should be monitored very closely and must be discouraged (Briggs, 1999: 324). A large, strong group of IT students does not necessary render the course a needs- or demand-driven once if the students are not going to find positions in the job market. It becomes a balancing trick not to be misled either by such behaviour patterns. OL is also aimed at enhancing student persistence. Yorke (2004:26) deliberately does not use the term “retention” because it is deliberate, stating that “persistence does not necessarily imply the lack of a break in engagement, and encompasses re-engagement with the same provider after a deliberate break (the term ‘repeat business’ might be used here)”. Equal access to OL is also reliable for adults with disabilities or caring responsibilities. These student cohorts may have specific needs arising from their circumstances and their attendance patterns are more vulnerable. Subsequently they have to work at their own pace and may take longer than the average student to complete their academic qualifications. By its very nature OL offers more flexibility and customised curricula to meet the needs of these students (Edmunds, 2001:11). Philosophy and origin of co-operative education Co-operative education has its origins with Professor Herman Schneider at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, USA. Schneider enrolled at Lehigh University as a student in 1980, studying architecture and engineering. During his studies he worked part-time and between sessions to help pay for his education. After graduation he entered the business world before returning to Lehigh University five years after graduation. He soon concluded that traditional classroom instruction could take engineering and other technical students only so far. He devised the framework of co-operative education, believing it to be the ideal educational model: students could learn their craft in a work setting, while also earning a wage to help cover the rising cost of HE. At the same time they could make professional contacts that could lead to employment opportunities after graduation. Co-operative education thus consists of two parts, namely an academic component and a work experience component (experiential learning) (Jacobs, 2005). Definition of co-operative education Co-operative education can thus be defined as a method of education that combines learning in the classroom with learning in the workplace. Students put their academic knowledge into action through relevant work experiences gained in commerce, industry and the public sector. Co-operative education includes the following features: • It is a strategy of applied learning. • It involves a structured programme developed and supervised by an educational institution in collaboration with one or more companies/organisations. • Relevant productive work is an integral part of a student’s academic programme and an essential component of the final assessment. It is important to note that there is a vast difference between experiential learning and work experience (Jacobs, 2005). There are five classes of “in-service training”: 1. Observation. The student is exposed to real problems in practice, but does not actively take part in the work or solution of problems. It is usually not paid. 2. General work experience. Students perform work, and may become involved in projects. No structured training, and work is not necessarily related to formal training. There is usually some form of remuneration. 3. Work-study plan. Students work in approved posts. The work may (coincidentally) be related to formal studies. The institution has little or no contact with students during these periods of work. Students are dependent upon the employer for what they learn. Students usually work for remuneration. 4. Co-operative education and career development. Here the main objective is the promotion of the competency of the student by participation in the work situation. Students are appointed in temporary positions. The work is related to formal studies and the institution liaises with employers and students. There is usually some form of remuneration or other benefits. 5. Internship. The purpose of placing students for internship is normally twofold. Firstly, it offers students the opportunity to become familiar with the demands and dignity of work, and secondly, students are able to test their abilities and shortcomings in actual situations. Internships are used in the training of medical personnel, accountants, professional engineers, etc. There is usually remuneration during the training. In the ideal case, HE students will follow a structured training programme in which they will be exposed to different problems that arise in practice. The student will be actively involved with work and problem-solving under the guidance of a mentor (Jacobs, 2005). The academic component is provided by formal instruction (classroom teaching) in the lecture rooms, and is supplemented by experimental work in the HEI’s laboratories. Laboratory sessions for students contribute to a thorough grouping in theory and principles, as well as practical techniques. Such laboratory work is normally performed at the HEI and is not part of the experiential learning programme. The experiential learning component has to allow for career development that focuses on the present needs, the short-term projected needs, as well as the expected long-term needs of both the worker (student) and the employer. The experiential learning component is planned according to the “job description” and career requirement and is integrated with CUT courses. Experiential learning usually consists of a structured programme and should not be confused with work experience (Jacobs, 2005). It is clearly differentiates as follows: • Formal training modules refer to training opportunities with clearly defined aims and objectives. The progress of the student’s development and competencies are measured against predetermined criteria. • Vocational learning experiences (formal training) refer to the experience gained by exposure to the real life of the actual work situation. • Career experiences refer to those aspects to which the student is exposed during his/her experiential learning relating to career development, such as formal and informal lines of authority, as well as the scope and relevance of his/her position in the company/organisation. • The ”outcomes” of a co-operative education programme can be described in terms of: • The knowledge base that the student should accumulate; • Skills that the student is able to apply; and • Vocational attitudes that have been instilled. The required outcomes should be clearly defined at the outset. The outcomes should not only focus on predetermined, measurable skills, but must also allow for the acquisition of knowledge and personal skills that are not coupled to planned training elements. Curriculum development within co-operative education models According to Jacobs (2005) who quoted from the work of Weise & Chapman, a major benefit to academic institutions through participation in co-operative education is curriculum development and content. Any one or combinations of the three co-op partners can drive curriculum change. Examples range from specifically tailored courses for industry needs to more genetic courses that prepare students for a broader workplace. Academic institutions must be responsive to the changing needs of industry, and course material must be entirely relevant. Work-integrated learning, for example, is becoming a key aspect of undergraduate programmes quoted Jacobs (2005) from the work of Canter and Frame, and is closely linked with outcome-driven curricula that focus on the ability to “do” and not just to “know” (Boud, 2001). Employer involvement in curricula is often facilitated through joint ventures with industry committees on campus and various partnership involving government and industry. In Australia major employers proposed a joint venture with government and tertiary institutions to introduce a new information technology degree (Fry and Hughes, 1997). This was in response to a serious shortage of qualified information systems practitioners. The new degree was aimed at high-achieving students financed by industry scholarships. Company staff was involved in developing course material and guest lecturing. This was followed by another innovative programme driven by the institution, involving a new postgraduate degree in management for business managers (Jacobs, 2005). In New Zealand surveys of industrial employers highlighted major deficiencies in the required skills and abilities of recent science and technology graduates quoted Jacobs (2005) from Chapman & Kirk’s work.. As a consequence and with the assistance of employers, a new course on science management was developed and delivered within the School of Science and Technology. The course, consisting of a number of short modules covering science business, communication, accounting, marketing, quality management, and human resource management, quickly attracted the largest number of students for any second-year course offered in the School. This is described by Hodges, McSporran, Rainsbury, and Sutherland (1996), where a first business studies degree was developed for their university by studying and modelling similar degrees offered nationally and overseas (Jacobs, 2005). In Canada co-op was responsible for rationalising a large number of departmental training courses (McRae,in Jacobs (2005). A new genetic course resulted, and is now offered on the Internet. This course and others like it are examples of cost-effective curricula development where successful co-op models can be used as the basis for new courses (Jacobs, 2005). Probably the most exciting facet of curriculum development has involved interaction between academic supervisors and the world of work (Baird & Groenewald,in Jacobs: 2005); Apostolides and Looye, 1997; (Faraday in Jacobs: 2005). Enormous benefits to academic institutions result from these interactions in the form of new courses, course relevance, and the importance of continuous consultation with industry to ensure that class material is meeting industry needs. The concept of total education (Apostolides & Looye, 1997) is better met by the integration of academic study with the co-op work experience. In this study a pattern of work assignments was shown to affect the quality of overall learning, which resulted in the modification, order, and focus in which certain courses were subsequently offered. In this case the modified curricula better reflected the needs of students at appropriate times during the degree (Jacobs, 2005). Service learning Non-formal and formal service learning is very much related to co-operative education (read experiential or in-service training) within the overall philosophy of OL. The HEQC approach is in line with their philosophical approach to community engagement and service learning. Lifelong learning Lifelong learning is an integral part of the struggle for substantive democracy and social justice in southern African states (Bezuidenhout, 2004:102). The various new policies and practices being implemented in the South African educational system can be seen as building blocks towards a lifelong learning system. Lifelong learning as a concept is visionary and therefore poses profound andragogical and organisational implications that are yet to be explored and fully understood (Isaacman, 1996:33). Focus must continually be shifted between the individual and the context of that individual, with neither point being separated form the other. An individual comprises a human being, but also a worker and a citizen of a country, with each individual having his/her own social context. The role of lifelong learning in these contexts has varied throughout history, with it having addressed the needs of production (worker), society (citizen) and culture (human being) to varying degrees at different times (Isaacman, 1996:33). Lifelong learning exists in all societies in different forms as people move through their life stages. There are many “lifelong educations”, as lifelong learning refers to the totality of learning activities, with these being classified by Paul Bélanger (1997) into three specific constituent elements: • Initial education: Those individuals who participate more in learning activities during different periods of adult life are those with a better longer initial education, since the general cumulative pattern of educational participation is highly influenced by initial education. • Adult education: There has been a rapid expansion of the social demand for organised adult education over the past 20 years, including vocational, community and HE. The provision of adult education does not conform to an organisational pattern, but is rather diffused over many structures and arrangements. • Diffuse learning environments: Learning does not take place only through organised educational, formal or non-formal processes – there are also numerous informal learning events and processes. Various cultural factors influence adult educational aspirations and learning achievement in initial education as well as adult education, including attitude towards education, the predisposition towards specific types of learning in the family or environment, the mere availability of books, the prevailing attitudes towards written communication, and the presence of a local cultural infrastructure (RSA, 2003:[online]; Isaacman, 1996:31). A challenging vision of HEIs transformed for OL comes from Lord Michael Young of Dartington and was first elaborated on at a conference held in 1999 in Swaziland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA). “Lifelong learning is all very well as a noble slogan, but it would be of little overall value if it were only lifelong learning for the few and not the many. In the fullness of time nothing less than universal learning will suffice. The educational battle between the champions of the few and the champions of the many has been joined… It is an outflanking policy I am presenting traversing a circuitous route towards mass engagement. It is to make universities which have done so much to enlarge inequality the instruments of equality instead … I know it will be a long time before the University of London is established. The University of Namibia, or Zimbabwe or Ghana or Delhi or Hong Kong could come beforehand, at any rate with that spirit if not the name (Dodds, 2001:505). A good African example of how to approach lifelong learning within an OL system would be that of the University of Namibia. It implies a close monitoring process to determine successful indicators (Dodds, 2001:506). This, he says, is the most difficult part of the research, i.e. “How do we think at this stage how we will change HE and if so, what will it look like?” Dodds formulates the following three critical areas: • The extent to which we have achieved mass or at least open access to HE. We will measure this primarily by numbers – what percentage of those who are competent to undertake HE formal (i.e. assessment/qualification-oriented) programmes are enrolled to do so? This will largely depend on the extent to which we have been able to put in place open, or at least flexible, entry systems to replace the strict and rigid assessment/qualification criteria in place at present; the extent to which we have created curricular constructs that attract students from many walks of life to see university studies as relevant to their lives and their work, and whether we have been able to put in place flexible delivery structures to ensure that students are able to study with a reasonable prospect of success. • Our success in reorganising all our teaching and curricula to promote the development of all our students, at all levels (pregraduate, undergraduate, postgraduate and non-qualification), in all modes of delivery (full-time, part-time, face-to-face or distance) of the skills and attitudes of lifelong learning. • Our demonstrated ability to set up and maintain structures that provide access to programmes through which the specialist intellectual resources of an HE institution are made available to all who are interested in them, or can be attracted to them, regardless of previous educational background or lack of it, in understandable forms and language. This assumes an ability to make the campus equal to the community or, in the case of Namibia, the nation, in ways that are real, not virtual, but which exploit to the full all media and technologies to which the intended audiences have access or can be given access. Dodds argues that “no reasons why barely literate or newly literate farmers cannot understand the most advanced concepts of agricultural science or economics as they relate to their opportunities for improved livelihood through farming, or why mothers who had very little formal education before becoming mothers cannot understand the most complicated ideas of health science or HIV/AIDS prevention strategies as they relate to their children. The challenge for academics to find the language and contexts in which to present their specialised knowledge and concepts”(Dodds, 2001:507). Dodds further argues that open and lifelong learning are the obvious directions for universities to go in the 21st century and that such development grows naturally out of their traditional roles and values. However, incorporating these new directions and to build them into the structures of a university in order to ensure that they become fully institutionalised requires significant changes in the ways of operating. Dodds (2001:8) defines nine essential conditions under which such programmes can be implemented: • “The first and possibly the most revolutionary transformation that will be needed is the establishment of much more open entry or admission systems to qualification programmes. There is ample and increasing evidence that school qualifications are entirely unreliable predictors of mature students’ ability to cope successfully with learning programmes. An additional consideration is that, under an open learning system, the additional cost per student of a few students whose entry suitability is in doubt, but who are determined to try, is marginal. • A second necessary change will be the introduction of flexible curriculum construction, which will enable students to select courses and modules that meet their learning needs in ways that do not at present add up to normal degree curricula. This might well demand much more cross-faculty combinations than are at present allowed or which would be logically possible in full-time face-to-face teaching circumstances. • The third set of conditions, or pre-conditions, are self-evidence; study structures that enable adult students to study while they earn (part-time study) and in places that are removed from the universities’ full-time teaching campuses distance education modes of study). • A fourth condition arises from the third: a much more flexible scheduling of progress through a qualification. Part-time and distance adult students may need to take significant periods of time off from their studies for reasons that related to other parts of their lives and to return to complete their degrees after such breaks. For the sake of continuity, there probably needs to be limits on this flexibility. However, it is vital that such mature part-time students can plan vary the pace at which they study in ways that allow more flexibility than full-time studies allow. • The fifth structural necessity is that an open and distance learning system through which lifelong learning opportunities are made available builds in effective student support networks to assist all its students to study with a reasonable chance of success. These are not exclusively structures through which face-to-face tutorial support is provided but they will usually include facilities for such contact. The growing, though very far from complete, access of students to new ICT facilities greatly enhances our ability to respond to this need. • A sixth condition is the acceptance of the ability students to move in and out of different modes of study or between them. Students who start as open learning should have the opportunity to enrol as full-time students at certain points of their progress, when they have completes courses to a point where they could easily fit into the full-time schedules. Similarly students who start as full-time students should have the opportunity to transfer to open learning if their circumstances or their preferences lead them to wish to do so. • A seventh and again somewhat radical; conditions for full-scale open and lifelong learning would be the flexibility for students to choose, as part of their degree with a particular local university, to take courses that they access through open learning from other universities, even from other countries. This would provide them with options that their local university does not provide, but they would need to be credited towards their degree by their local university; these possibilities are hugely increased by the growing availability on a global basis of access to enroll for courses through web-based delivery. The issues of accreditation of such cross-institution study and of credit transfer remain extremely difficult; the 21st century universities are going to have to find solutions. • An eighth conditions is that the university outreach – through non-degree and often non-tertiary programmes of adult and continuing education, aiming to make the universities’ intellectual power-house available to all – are recognized and funded as essential; university activities. • My final condition takes us back to the issue of ensuring that all university curricula include, as a high priority objective, the creation of lifelong learners by including the development of lifelong learning skills and attitudes as integral parts of those curricula. This will not happen on its own; universities will have to put in place incentives and regulations and curriculum development structures which ensure that it does” (Dodds, 2001:508). Open and distance learning (ODL) Williams (2000:520) writes that there is much confusion about the use of the expression “open and distance learning”. It is thus helpful to start with a definition of ODL. As her strategic study makes clear: Open learning is flexible learning that makes education more accessible to students (than the traditional forms of learning). Distance learning is a form of study and one way of pursuing open learning. Or, as John Daniel puts it (1999, p. 292), “open learning may or may not involve distance education whereas distance education may or may not contribute to open learning”. He goes on to say that many people associate distance education with the new information and communication technologies. However, open and distance learning is much more that this. This stance is reiterated in a SOCRATES-ODL working paper, which defines ODL as “the use of new methods (both technical and otherwise) to improve the flexibility of learning in terms of space, time, choice of content, teaching resources, and/or to improve access to educational systems from a distance” (Williams, 2000:520). ODL rather is a concept that is applied to a wide range of activities. Much of the development of ODL in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and elsewhere reflects a variation in activities and also in the use of terminology. It also reflects a variation in the extent to which those developments “map-on” to the definitions quoted above. Undoubtedly, this variation is the result of different national contexts and priorities, but it also comes from a lack of understanding of, and confusion about, terminology and definitions. Although ODL developments in Africa may not all strictly adhere to the definitions of modern forms of teaching and learning mentioned above, alternatives to the traditional forms of education and training are starting to be developed (Cf. Williams, 2000:520). Subsequently CUT’s Academic Development Plan, which is in tandem with its Manual of Policies and Procedures (CUTMOPP) that derives from national legislation (NEPAD) promotes regional, national and international research collaboration (CUT, 2005f). Although CUTMOPP at this stage does not specifically use ODL terminology, it already implies networking with the SADC and other African states. In this sense CUTMOPP already encapsulates the vision and mission of the Association of African Universities’ intention to play a supportive role in the development within African Partner Institutions (APIs) of applicable mixed mode or blended ODeL teaching and learning types (Dzvimbo, 2005:10). This is why the CUT has to add value to its current curricula to develop existing programmes into synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning on campus or out of the main campus in Welkom and Kimberley, and eventually within an AVU network to provide for the increasing number of students. It is obvious that the development of virtual campuses in Africa is a reality. The paucity of resources, says the AAU’s Dzvimbo (2005:10), as well as the demands of the new modern upcoming learner, is now forcing African universities to think creatively about how they can deliver their programmes to an ever-changing student profile on the continent. It is in this creative tension between vision and reality that the CUT can add value to what African HEIs are engaged in when it comes to ODeL (Cf. Dzvimbo, 2005:10). In essence ODL is about sharing resources. Due to shoestring budgets for higher education in Africa, HEIs cannot afford to duplicate facilities to the further detriment of the hungry and the poor. ODL therefore is the logical answer to making use of innovative teaching and learning techniques with modern technology to reduce rural poverty (Cf. CoL, 2005). It is also more likely that international organisations, such as UNESCO and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), will assist to provide resources to Africa’s most crippling problems. Most African states (ex-British colonies) are members of the ACU (2005). This fact will also force South African universities to collaborate within ODeL-driven strategies to quality for international recognition and possible financial support. It could also become a local prerequisite to qualify for state subsidy. Universities of technology in particular ultimately have to keep up with the vast growth in the information age and knowledge business. According to Oblinger (2001:1) the speed at which new knowledge, new practices and new products appear in the market prioritises lifelong learning and ODeL. She contends that the following technological trends will fuel the blending of ODL with e-learning: • New applications of Web technology will appear continually. Due to the low cost of entry and the ease with which new applications can be developed and modified, new products and services will appear almost daily (PwC, 1998). • The Net will get bigger and faster. The next-generation Internet will be of very high bandwidth at a very affordable cost. Quality of service, security and reliability will improve. We are already seeing the integration of voice, video and data. In addition, very powerful servers that provide huge amounts of storage will contribute to the increasing value of the network (Greene in Baird, 2009). • Reliability will improve. The importance of the Internet for all forms of business and education will increase. Consequently, steps will be taken to guard against catastrophic failure of the Internet due to either technical malfunctions or malicious attack (PwC, 1998). • Wireless will gain ground. New satellite systems will expand the coverage area and capabilities of voice, data and video wireless solutions. In fact, wireless technologies will begin to be deployed as a cost-effective alternative to wireless transmission. As prices fall, wireless may become especially important in providing telecommunications services in remote areas that cannot economically be served using other technologies (PwC, 1998). • Sizes will get smaller. Palmtops, PDAs and hand-held PCs will continue to gain popularity. As they add improved communication capabilities and as access to wireless digital services becomes more widely available, these smaller form-factor devices will become more commonplace in education. • Storage will increase. Multimedia and many other types of applications will create growing demand for storage. Fortunately, the price per megabyte of disk storage is predicted to continue to fall by 50% every 15 to 18 months (PwC, 1998). Not only is the price falling, but the density of storage is increasing and the form factor (i.e. size) of storage for PCs is shrinking (Pool in Baird, 2009). • Displays will become flexible. Although computer displays are lighter and have better resolution than ever before, new technologies such as organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) are exceptionally bright, operate efficiently at low voltages and can potentially be made very inexpensively. These new displays will be thin, lightweight and flexible – allowing them to travel to remote locations more easily than today’s displays (Pool in Baird,2009). • Mainframes will remain cost-effective. For many of the applications likely to dominate the scene for distance and open learning, “mainframes” will be a part of the future, and they will continue to offer superior scalability, robustness, security and handling of data-intensive applications, such as decision support or data warehousing. In fact, for many enterprise-wide applications, mainframes offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to other platforms (PwC, 1998; Oblinger, 2001:12). A number of features of Web-based hypermedia also provide suitable mediums for the design of OL environments. The underlying object-oriented architecture of hypermedia systems accords with the need for representational diversity of andragogic mechanisms and the ongoing reconstruction that an evolutionary approach to the design of learning activity demands. Design and development processes are to take account of features of the environment likely to influence or be influenced by interactive intervention of specific programmes. Quantitative and qualitative methods are also employed to enable evaluations of hypermedia designs and their environment of use (Trikic, 2001:186). Because ODeL is based on sharing facilities, local HEI consortiums have been formed, but these will also merge with global consortia, built around disaggregated value chains that will in turn lead to more global virtual universities. Technological developments will drive the process, the nature of net-based relationships and qualities of the Web that are impacting on ODL (Oblinger, 2001: 9). ODL will eventually force HEIs into mergers and alliances. Hubs will compile user-friendly services into single websites to cut down on costs and administration. Employers in the labour force are also using ODeL for their employees to acquire skills on a flexible basis (Monk, 2001:53). New thoughts and ideas on HEIs’ corporative images are now aimed at breaking down the old perceptions of poor-quality first-generation distance education practices into those of excellent quality user-friendly ODeL methodologies to remain competitive in the global village of HE and the labour market. Obviously much still has to be done to counteract the public’s negative perception of “correspondence distance education” and poor student retention and pass rates. Even 30 years after the founding of open universities in Britain, Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, perceptions of non-campus-based HE as second rate still persist (Dhanarajan, 2001:63). However, the perceptions of ODeL are rapidly changing but still with the following red warning lights to forestall the idea that it is an ideal panacea for higher education: • A naïve faith in the new technologies to solve all of the problems of educational deprivation around the world is misplaced. Access to technology, lack of skills to use the technology for teaching and learning, and the cost of buying and renewing technologies form the rest of the equation. These will continue to be the main impediments to the application of technologies for a much longer period than we are willing to accept (Dhanarajan, 2001:64). • In the absence of institutional commitment, a significant number of courses currently available on the Web and the Internet seem to be anchored not by institutional commitment but individual enthusiasm (Dhanarajan, 2001:64). • Due to a low level of investment in staff training, the current level of investment in staff development is totally inadequate for the tasks expected from faculty members asked to create learner-conferred materials. The range of skills required to function in a multimedia environment are even more demanding. Institutions are quite enthusiastic about investing in new appliances, software programs and connections, but totally unrealistic when it comes to investing in training (Dhanarajan, 2001:65). • Along with the shifting of costs away from institutions to individual learners, new approaches to ODeL via cyber pipes have also meant that the cost of learning is gradually shifting from being an institutional responsibility to being a learner responsibility. Not many home learners have the level of disposable income to pay for this in addition to tuition and other institutional fees. If providers of education are not mindful, yet another barrier can emerge (Dhanarajan, 2001:65). • There is a mismatch between the global market and the local curriculum. The Internet and the Web make it possible for education beyond borders to take place, but from the few known examples, the curriculum has not kept pace with the global classroom. Curricula design, not surprisingly, is mostly responsive to local needs, and non-local learners suffer serious disadvantages. There is also the danger of creating new forms of imperialism, with one or two countries dominating large parts of the educational market with their view and interpretation of knowledge and information (Dhanarajan, 2001:65). • There is untested leadership to manage change. ODeL requires sound management and leadership. The early pioneers in the field, such as Walter Perry of the UK Open University and Ram Reddy of the Indira Gandhi National Open University of India, were academically respected, politically connected and astute, charismatic speakers and interlocutors, clever strategists and tacticians. They did not just manage; they initiated change. (Dhanarajan, 2001: 66) • There is a real danger of us losing our sense of equity and equality of opportunities. At the heart of educational innovations, such as ODeL, must be the concern to reach out to those in our communities who have never been able to participate in any form of learning (Dhanarajan, 2001:66). Internationalisation: Africanisation The philosophy of OL was to a great extent formed by global forces in HE such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), The Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), and various other international organisations and funding agencies such as the World Bank. For purposes of this framework on the philosophy of OL, our focus will be on Africanisation within the above-mentioned international bodies. In 1999 the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) was established to further, for example, teacher education in its 53 African member states. It also strives for international co-operation for the development of education through NEPAD and AU (UNESCO, 2004). Very important is the IICBA’s ability to utilise ODeL to train and develop a critical mass of teachers in the most cost-effective manner. Another characteristic is its partnership with African intergovernmental organisations and nongovernmental institutions to identify and execute comprehensive strategies for Africa’s educational development (UNESCO, 2004). ICCBA links African ministries of education to enhance information and communication technology. One of its key objectives of the ICCBA’s ODeL project is to adapt the courses within African countries. In 2000, world leaders set eight millennium development goals (MDGs) that aim to transform the conditions of humankind in the 21st century. From this global perspective the holistic philosophy of OL was given a huge boost within the CoL, which has been promoting this idea since its establishment in 1988 in Canada (CoL, 2005). “The Commonwealth of Learning is an agency established by the Commonwealth in Canada in 1988 to widen access to learning through the effective use of open distance learning (ODL) and new communications technologies. It rapidly developed into one of the Commonwealth’s most successful initiatives, pioneering developments in international distance learning.” (COL, 2005) “COL is the only international intergovernmental agency that focuses exclusively on using technology to expand the scope and scale of human learning. It operates on the premise that knowledge is the key to individual freedom and to cultural, social and economic development. It helps Governments to develop policies that make innovation sustainable and to build systems or applications that expand learning and works in partnership with other international and bilateral organisations working on the MDGs “COL is a small agency. It achieves high impact through its focus on technology; placing special emphasis on open and distance learning (ODL) because of its proven effectiveness. “COL starts from the premise that the use of human reason, and the knowledge that flows from it, is the key to enabling all people to enjoy healthy and decent lives. As a world leader in the new field of knowledge management, COL has a special mission to help people access and use knowledge that can help them. “The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals does not depend on knowledge and learning alone. Political decisions, for example to make trading arrangements more equitable for developing countries, also have a vital role. However, ready access to usable knowledge can enable people in developing countries, from farmers to academics, to take rapid advantage of favourable changes. “Development depends on the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge by everyone. COL believes that technology can greatly facilitate these processes. The techniques of open and distance learning give farmers the know-how to improve their livelihoods and rural women the knowledge to arise a healthy family. Schoolnets create communities of practise among teachers and give children access to the best materials. E-learning and the knowledge media are gradually enriching the curriculum for all universities. “COL is an effective partner in combining knowledge and technology to advance development. • Across the globe: More than 135 million children do not have access to primary education. Of those who do, many are taught by poor trained teachers in ill-equipped schools with no learning materials, laboratories or libraries, and will not complete primary school education. Over one billion adults, most of them illiterate, have never received or benefited from education when they were young. Many others require new skills to function in a new and ever-changing global environment. Access to HE is no more than percent of the relevant age group in many developing countries. • Education: “It offers the best strategy to break the cycle of poverty, misery and violence. But conventional means alone or unable to meet this challenges. ODeL, coupled with the application of appropriate information and communications technologies, can play a central role in delivering education at all levels to all peoples, providing them with the chance for a brighter future. “The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) employs open learning and distance education to increase access to education and training. COL collaborates with governments and educational institutions and works with national and international development agencies, national regional distance education associations and open universities and schools around Commonwealth. “Through its model-building programmes, COL has: • Enhanced access to leaning in more than 40 countries; • Influenced the development of open schools and universities; • Conducted training seminars and studies; • Established an extensive network of education and technology specialists; and • Facilitated systemic changes in the delivery of education and influences government policy.” (COL, 2005) COL’s partners within the UNESCO IICBA Ministers of Education Network worked closely together to being about UNESCO’s World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 with the specific aim to improve the literacy rates of women in Africa (COL, 2004:8). A further advantage of COL for African member states is, of course, the advanced network that extends to India. COL can be regarded as a global catalyst for collaborative action in a synergistic manner (COL, 2000:462). Capacity building by creating programmes to incorporate a variety of customised (read Africanised) technological models, for collaboration is the core business of COL (Macdonald, 2000:463). True collaboration involves more than joint funding, says Macdonald (2000:463). It extends also to joint planning, management, and implementation, such as that affordable by Canada’s piloting as innovation to the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Program. COL participates in forums that bring together agencies – governmental, intergovernmental, or non-governmental – that have similar or complementary objectives, for example, in the Global Knowledge Partnership; the ongoing work with UNESCO, UNICEF and other development agencies in a range of areas including initiatives supporting the EFA agenda, secondary school reform and health education; the building of African capacity in distance education through membership of the executive committee of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) supporting humanitarian agencies in their educational and training activities (UNICEF, UNHCR, OXFAM), and participating on the WETV Foundation Board (Macdonald, 2000:463). The Federation of Commonwealth Open and Distance Learning Associations (FOCODLA) co-operates with Commonwealth professional associations to assist them to apply open and distance learning in continuing professional education, and also to organise effective ways to follow up on the expectations of the EFA conference in Dakar (Macdonald, 2000:463). The development of a formal relationship with the distance education facilities of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a high priority. As part of its role as a catalyst for collaboration, COL will explore ways to partner with the Indian educational television company, Gyan Darshan, and the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), to include educational programming useful to Commonwealth countries covered by the satellite’s footprint: East Africa through the Pacific and South Asia. In addition, the potential for the creation of an Eastern African facility for distance education development, as well as the feasibility of establishing a facility for research and training in distance education in the Pacific, will be significant initiatives. In co-operation with the Commonwealth Secretariat, and possibly the ADEA Working Groups on Teacher Training and Distance Education, CoL organises a sub-Saharan Africa policy dialogue on teacher training through ODL, along with learning methodologies to improve training (Macdonald, 2000:464). Africanisation The National Association of Distance Education Organisations of South Africa (NADEOSA) also collaborated with COL to organise their annual international conference in Durban in June 2003. It forms a consortium with the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) and other African associations such as the Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDAL) in Nigeria as well as DEASA. An African Ministers’ Conference on ODL were also held in early 2004 in partnership with the South African Department of Education and UNESCO, which made recommendations that will enable African countries to make maximum use of ODL and incorporate it into their education frameworks. COL is working with the Department and UNESCO in taking forward these recommendations (COL, 2005). In February 2005, COL collaborated with the World Bank, UNESCO and the AAU to organise a joint conference in Cape Town. Substantial workshops forged closer ties among university vice chancellors, while an African Quality Assurance Network (AQUANET) was also established (AAU, 2005). Association of African Universities (AAU) The AAU is a not-for-profit continental organisation with a membership of 175 HEIs drawn from 44 African countries and all sub-regions of the continent. Since its founding in 1967, the AAU has been serving as the collective voice and principal regional forum for consultation, exchange of information and co-operation among the institutions of higher education in Africa. Key areas featuring in its core programme have been: • Strengthening institutional capacity; • Promoting networking and institutional collaboration, and supporting research on higher education issues; • Advocating policy and promoting quality assurance and academic mobility; and • Enhancing access to scholarly information. (AAU, 2005) Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) The ACU is a registered charity with a membership of 500 universities across the Commonwealth. It was founded in 1913 and since then has served as the principal forum for discussion, the exchange of information and co-operation among the institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its programmes, inter alia, promote academic mobility, institutional collaboration, research networks, and research on higher education issues (in particular borderless higher education and benchmarking institutional management processes. Another important subdivision of the AAU, namely PAREN (Promoting Research and Education Networking), is already on track and collaborating with the Canadian Independent Development Agency (CIDA) as well as the AVU, a project of the World Bank (AAU, 2005). Most important for South African universities is the establishment of SARUA (Southern African Regional Universities Association), which operates according to the SADC protocol within the greater NEPAD structures (SADC Protocol: Article 7:14). In ODeL terms the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) promotes OL methodologies such as flexible and blended learning (AAU, 2005). The South African Minister of National Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, reiterated her Department’s desire for technical partnerships with other African universities to establish a new African university infrastructure (AAU, 2005). In addition, the IICBA of UNESCO underpins the COL and AU initiatives within the NEPAD secretariat on educational issues. Substantial development work has also been done on science and technology for industrialisation (IICBA, 2005). All in all, the Africanisation of ODeL is still only in the making. Suffice to say that it is a highly neglected issue at many South African universities, which do not really recognise the urgent needs of the African continent at large. Unfortunately politics on the continent has bedevilled much of the valuable information on ODeL – for example, the predominantly negative news reports on Zimbabwe that have been overshadowing the sincere objectives of the Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa (VIHEAF), which is geographically situated in Harare, Zimbabwe. This is a UNESCO cluster office that offers free registration on the Internet (http://www.viheaf.net). VIHEAF inter alia strives to: • Build/strengthen the capacity of teachers and other personnel in educational institutions in sub-Saharan Africa in critical areas of national and regional needs as identifies through the machineries of AU, MINEDAF and NEPAD; • Provide Internet-based training on HIV/AIDS education for teachers at the primary, secondary and higher education levels in Africa; • Provide Internet-based training on the development of materials for open and distance learning; • Enhance the knowledge and skills of academic staff in institutions of higher learning on such issues as (a) teaching of large classes; (b) effective utilisation of (meagre) resources; (c) modern methods performance; (d) basic guidance counselling techniques; (e) basic skills of curriculum development: and (f) techniques for writing winning grant proposals. • Share experiences among staff in institutions of higher learning and within the context of the World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) and the African Network for Innovations in Higher Education (ANIHE) on best practices in higher education teaching. (UNESCO, 2005). Thinking beyond scenarios Our vision is to Africanise a differentiated but single co-ordinated African higher, further and vocational education system of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) within the Association for African Universities (AAU) in tandem with NEPAD. On the micro level, an OPEN UNIVERSITY OF THE TRANS XHARIEP will sooner or later have be established geographically behind the Xhariep river which sprung out of the Maluti mountains in the Kingdom of Lesotho upwards to the Northern parts of the Free State and Northern Cape provinces to enapsulate the following institutions: • The University of the Free State (UFS); • The Central University of Technology Free State (CUT); • The National University of Lesotho (NUL); • UNISA – Regional Distance Facilities; • The National Institute for Higher Education: Northern Cape; • Further Education and Training Institutions (FETIs); and • Vocational Colleges (Agricultural and Nursing). Eventually, the Open University of the Trans Xhariep (OUX) which could consist out of all those HEI’s from the Kingdom of Lesotho right through to the mouth of the Xhariep river where it mouths into the Atlantic ocean in the Northern Cape. OUX will ipso facto be a member that will co-operate within SARUA and its ODeL substrates such as: • ACDE • DEASA • NADEOSA • World Bank • AVU • AAU • COL • UNESCO UNESCO’s training initiatives of teachers in Africa, for example, is a very good and practical example of Africanisation which was sparked as a globalized stimulus. It was planned according to the following time frames:: • Begin interventions:  2006: 16 countries  2008: 7 countries added  2010: 15 countries added  2012: 8 countries added • Consultation with member states to determine which countries next enter the Teacher Education Initiative; • Assistance up to four years (AAU, 2005); • ODeL methodologies are prominent throughout Step by step, the way is paired with a holistic approach to higher education. Higher Education South Africa (HESA) The CUT Council has agreed, in principle, that the CUT should subscribe to and become an institutional member of this Section 21 company, which represents the interests of South African public HEIs. The Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the CUT was appointed and authorised to make all the arrangements and sign all such documents as may be necessary to secure the CUT’s status as a subscribing member of HESA, on terms that he might deem appropriate. He has also been appointed as a director of HESA and authorised to make all arrangements and sign all such documents as may be necessary to give effect to this resolution (CUT Council, 2005) The problem of technology-based ODeL currently being hampered by the multilingual nature of African societies will be overcome via appropriate technical solutions without totalitarian language management engineering of politicians. Carl Sagan (1996:432) writes in his book, “The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”: New ideas, invention, and creativity in general, always spearhead a king of freedom breaking out of hobbling constraints. Freedom as a prerequisite for continuing the delicate experiment of science which is one reason the Soviet Union could not remain a totalitarian state and be technologically competitive. At the same time, science – or rather its delicate mix of openness and scepticism, and its encouragement of diversity and debate – is a prerequisite for continuing the delicate experiment of freedom in an industrial and highly technological society. Sceptical thinking does not imply that ODeL will be exactly planned according to the philosophy of OL as argued for the only and single solution for HEIs in Africa, but to serve as a premise or starting point for a holistic differentiated meaning. That implies that the whole concept is bigger than its parts, which could be investigated with a logical set of reasoning tools: • The fact that ODeL is on the agenda for HEIs. • Substantive evidence of academic debates is available. • ODeL experts with renowned authority propagate the democratic ideas of freedom and openness. • OL is open for multiple working hypotheses for a number of methodologies that are successfully implemented and developed, e.g. flexible learning, blended learning and all its subdivisions. • ODeL as such is an alternative hypothesis on its own. A number of new ideas on OL can be elaborated on, however, and not only the initial impressions that have already been coined. • Alternatives for ODeL are yet to be developed. Subsequently it is not a final panacea for HEIs – for example, rejecting the idea that e-learning could ever replace the lecturer in the African learning culture. • Scientific ODeL research is quantifiable (see the attached list of references and additional list of cross-references [infra: pp]). Also refer to the great number of HEIs in these references that are already implementing one or other form of ODeL. • There is a chain of logical arguments about how ODeL is currently being developed in Africa (supra: pp). • NEPAD has a budget to fund ODeL (AAU Press Release). • In comparing the data on the philosophy of OL, the simple choice is to accept ODeL as a Fait de accompli at African HEIs. Consequently, the UAD at the CUT has to do more research on the individual components of ODeL. No counter-arguments can be raised against this fact. Finally, the grand idea is that the philosophy of OL is only an elementary part of higher education in the total world of learning. It is like an electron in the cosmos (Cf. Sagan, 1997:211). No scientist can ever acquire total knowledge of the multiple possibilities of learning or the ways in which an individual’s brain understands “a thing” at a certain point in time, location, action, experience, context, method or perception…Subsequently to this fact, the philosophy of OL is incapable of disproof! REFERENCES AAU (Association of African Universities). 2005. Proceedings of the 11th AAU General Conference: Cross-border Provision and the Future of Higher Education in Africa. Accra-North, Ghana: AAU. AAU & ACU (Association of African Universities & Association of Commonwealth Universities). 2005. Joint Press Release, 11 March 2005. AAU Newsletter, 11(1): 6. ACDE 2005 Establishment workshop of the African Council for Distance Education. University of Soth Africa. Pretoria.. Apostolides, V. & Looye, J.W. 1997. 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