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If you want to
earn a degree from a US or UK university, then you can do it in an
affordable way without even leaving your home. How? All thanks to the
facilities and benefits offered by online education.
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Better learning Opportunities :
Zuhur Yasin owns a
bachelor’s degree from a reputed US university although she has
never visited America. Most of 29-year-old's education in Somaliland
(located in Somalia) were completed in a unique classroom that
consists of several computers connected with microphones and
webcams. Yasin participated in live digital classes and watched
videos offered by Indiana University while pursuing her journalism
course from the University of Hargeisa. She said “We had
discussions and shared any challenges or questions.”
Yasin was
connected with the Indiana University through the African Virtual
University (AVU), which is an inter-governmental establishment.
According to the AVU, the institute has utilised digital learning to
train and educate more than 43,000 learners since its establishment
in 1997. The university declared 29 new distance learning centres
last year. The educators use various apps and programmes like
WhatsApp and Skype to interact with the learners. However, the
classes are conducted by using particular software.
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Expanding reach of Education :
The African
Virtual University is also planning to offer lectures through
smartphones and increasing their accessibility, so that it can be
offered to the estimated 112m smartphone users in Africa. Many
learners, like Yasin, in sub-Saharan Africa are searching for
learning opportunities at recognised universities. The region saw the
lowest university attendance worldwide back in 2008 with merely 6 per
cent of secondary school graduates pursuing higher education. This
figure was much below the global average of 26 oper cent, as per the
UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Recently, the
African Union (AU) launched the eLearning Africa conference on ICT
which aims at development, education and training and plans to close
that gap and improve the human resources required for economic
progress. It is believed that around 1,200 business representatives
and government ministers attended the conference. Founder of
eLearning Africa, Rebecca Stromeyer, says “Now is the time when
technology can really help to entrench the progress many African
countries have made in education. If the right decisions are taken
now, they will help to sustain long-term economic growth.”
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eLearning is the Ideal Solution :
Education experts
believe that online learning tools can help students in Africa to
connect to MOOCs (massive open online courses), like Coursera which
offers free online tuition from several leading universities
worldwide. Earlier this year, the African Virtual University
enrolled over 1,698 African learners in their first MOOC that
explored different aspects of technology to enhance the learning
experience. Mark West, a mobile learning expert at UNESCO, says,
“[Online learning] is a portal into educational opportunities that,
frankly, hadn’t existed before, and some of those opportunities, if
you can afford the broadband connection and the hardware to use that
connection, are free. For really self-motivated learners, it’s
remarkable.”
But the fact
remains that online universities are still facing the challenge of
high dropout rates. West believes it will be best if we could combine
online education with practical learning and assessment. He says “A
lot of people start but they never finish – they don’t finish
individual courses and they definitely don’t finish entire areas of
study.” Yasin, who worked hard for her online degree, says “In a
regular class you have a teacher who is in front of you who makes you
concentrate. With the online environment, you have to have
discipline, make your own timetable to listen to the lectures, and
submit the assignments online.
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The bottom line :
Virtual learning
is undoubtedly the ideal solution to the difficulties of students in
Africa in pursuing university education. Online courses help to
address the bigger issues related to learning in Africa.
What do you think? Share your thoughts with us by commenting below.
Source: bit.ly/1LkRYbn
