Facilitating equitable access and quality education for development: South African International Distance Education

目前，整个非洲的高等教育毛入学率只有8%，是世界上最低的。然而，对于整个非洲大陆的政策制定者来说，高等教育被视为实现可持续经济发展的重要工具。这与2015年9月通过的联合国可持续发展目标相呼应，该目标呼吁在2030年前消除贫困的工具包中公平获得高质量的高等教育。这种推动人口受教育的努力符合这样一个现实，在许多非洲国家，高等教育远远供不应求，只有富人通过移民才能解决这个问题。跨国界的远程教育正在填补这一空白。事实上，在南非这个高等教育发达的国家，三分之一的学生注册都来自这个国际远程教育(IDE)群体。尽管它对非洲高等教育格局很重要，并可能对整个大陆的发展挑战做出贡献，但它的工作原理仍未得到充分研究。因此，该项目及时填补了一个重大的知识空白，这将在今后十年产生与整个非洲的社会和经济发展密切相关的知识。该项目侧重于对非洲教育与发展中心未来的成功至关重要的两个领域：教育机会平等和教育质量。在其他环境下对集成开发环境的研究表明，这种学习方式可以改善面临人口统计和社会劣势(包括性别、种族和残疾，以及学习后期或有关怀责任的学习者)的学生的机会。这个项目将在非洲的背景下调查这些问题，问“IDE能否为整个非洲大陆的学生带来平等的机会？”教育质量也很重要。在2000年的南非学生群体中，只有30%的学生在五年内毕业，达到了学业水平。其他研究还表明，来自非传统背景的学生的留存率明显较低。该项目将调查教育质量在这里所起的作用，询问“如何评估IDE的质量，以及如何改进才能创造更好的学生成绩？”该项目将研究南非大学(2014年之前是南非唯一的远程教育提供商)向非洲大陆其他地区的学生提供的IDE。研究将使用定性和定量方法收集津巴布韦、莱索托和尼日利亚三个国家的人口和社会经济数据、学习原因、劳动力市场意向、移民计划和学生群体的教育经验。这将与南非学生和在数据存在的地方面对面学习的学生进行比较。该项目还将建立在OU的学习设计倡议(OULDI)的基础上。利用这一创新方案的技术，将分析现有学生的表现和原因，将对学习设计进行更改，并将在下一年的队列中测试设计更改的效果。这一知识交流将使现有和成功的OULDI战略能够在另一种背景下使用，并加强OULDI的未来发展。该项目成功的核心是来自英国和南非一流教育机构的研究人员团队。这两所大学是大陆学习教育学的领先者，并已与IDE领域的主要参与者建立了联系，该项目的发现将为两所大学的教学方法提供参考。该项目将由Gunter博士和Raghuram教授领导，他们在南非国际高等教育的合作研究方面有着成功的记录，每个国家都有一个强大的联合调查团队。该项目受到后殖民理论和政治的启发，旨在全球范围内尝试在IDE上进行双向学习。

Presently, the gross enrolment rate for higher education (HE) across Africa runs at only 8 per cent - the lowest in the world. Yet for policy makers throughout the continent, HE is regarded as a vital tool to bring about sustainable economic development. This is echoed by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September 2015, which call for equitable access to high quality tertiary education in their toolkit for ending poverty by 2030. This push for an educated population abuts a reality where, in many African countries, HE demand far outstrips supply and is only addressed by the wealthy through migration. Distance education across national borders is filling that gap. Indeed, one third of student registrations in South Africa, a country where higher education is well established, are made up from this international distance education (IDE) cohort. Despite its importance to the African HE landscape, and its potential contribution to continent-wide development challenges, the workings of IDE remain under-researched. Thus, this project fills a significant and timely gap in knowledge which will generate learning of substantial relevance to social and economic development throughout Africa in the decade to come.This project focuses on two areas vital to the future success of IDE in Africa: equality of access to education, and the quality of that education. Research on IDE in other settings demonstrates that this learning style can improve access for students facing demographic and social disadvantages (including gender, race, and disability, as well as learners studying later in life or learners with caring responsibilities). This project will investigate these issues in the African setting, asking "can IDE can generate equitable access to students from across the continent?" Educational quality is important too. Of the South African student cohort in the year 2000, only 30 per cent graduated within five years with attainment levels. Other research also shows that student retention is markedly lower in students from non-traditional backgrounds. The project will investigate the role of education quality plays here, asking "how can the quality of IDE be assessed, and what improvements can be made to create better student outcomes?"The project will examine IDE delivered by the University of South Africa (the sole provider of DE in South Africa until 2014) to students elsewhere in the continent. Research will collect demographic and socio-economic data, reasons for study, labour market intentions, migration plans and educational experience of student cohorts in three countries, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Nigeria using both qualitative and quantitative methods. This will be compared with South African students and with students studying face-to-face where this data exists. The project will also build on the OU's Learning Design Initiative (OULDI). Using techniques from this innovative programme, existing student performance and reasons for it will be analysed, changes will be made to learning design, and the effects of the design changes will be tested on the following year's cohort. This knowledge exchange will enable the existing and successful OULDI strategy to be employed in another context, and enhance the future development of the OULDI.Central to the success of this project is a team of researchers from top DE institutions in the UK and South Africa. The two universities are continental leaders in learning pedagogies and have established links with key players in the field of IDE and the project's findings will inform teaching approaches at both institutions. The project will be led by Dr Gunter and Prof Raghuram who have a successful track record of collaborative research on South African international HE, with a strong team of co-investigators from each country. The project is informed by postcolonial theory and politics and aims to experiment with two way learning on IDE globally.