During the Covid-19 lockdown in Uganda, one of our clients - a financial institution with a footprint in 12 countries in Africa, offered our firm the opportunity to train in online delivery. The purpose was to have a team of trained Facilitators in Africa who could deliver their content on Self- Management. This was our first encounter with online delivery at scale. We had another opportunity with another financial institution to deliver to over 600 branch managers. This institution had a footprint in 35 countries in Africa. This delivery was done at a time when most of sub-saharan Africa was experiencing lockdown.
Since these two experiences, we have gone on to include online teaching and learning as an integral part of our delivery experience. We have done so for corporates, public sector, educational institutions and preparing young entrepreneurs in East Africa.
Based on these experiences, my sense is that online teaching and learning will shape the way we learn and apply learning in the future in the following ways:
1. Integrated as part of most learning interventions regardless of sectors. In pre-Covid, it would have been unthinkable to include online teaching and learning as part of interventions in the public sector. In Uganda, all universities and other tertiary institutions have been directed by the Ministry of Education to do e-learning as a matter of priority, according to a directive from the Ministry of Education. According to the International Association of Universities' (IAU, 2020b) global survey on the impacts of COVID-19, two thirds of the responding institutions worldwide have replaced classroom teaching with distance learning. In the United States, the American Council of Education (ACE, 2020), COVID-19 survey of 268 college and university presidents found that more than half (55%) planned to offer "predominantly online, with some in person instruction" in the spring of 2021 semester, which meant that the entire academic year would be online.
2. Enable greater reach to the African population via the use of mobile phones. In a continent, where we have more mobile phones than bank accounts, the future of online teaching and learning will be driven by continued penetration of mobile technology and flexible learning applications. According to the World Bank and African Development Bank, there are 650 million mobile users in Africa, surpassing the number in the United States or Europe. IN some African countries more people have access to a mobile phone than clean water, a bank account or electricity.
3. Require standards and certifications of Faculty to ensure that Facilitators have the skill to facilitate learning online. My experience with the financial institution who invited us to be trained in their content, showed that the ability to make learning easy online is different from the face-to- face classroom interaction. Proficiency with online collaborative tools (Zoom, Padlet, Canvas, etc) are a must in addition to a Facilitators ability to apply the principles of adult learning via a mobile device.
4. Drive on-demand learning in very significant ways. For example, in 2022, University lecturers in Nigeria went on strike for 6 months - a practice that is not uncommon in other African countries. Online teaching and learning could have facilitated student learning and contract the time to graduate.
5. Make it easier for young people to mobilize and drive social change. For example, access to online platforms and tools was one of the contributing factors to the successful effort by young people in Nigeria to combat the police brutality. Young people were able to organize, crowd fund and source ideas on the best ways to communicate and coordinate the activities in Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria.
6. Investments in high-speed connectivity. According to the World Bank, “Nearly 300 million Africans live more than 50 kilometers from a Fiber or cable broadband connection, hence the lack of widespread availability of high-speed internet remains a significant hurdle for Africa to fully harness the potential of digital transformation”
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