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

目前，非洲高等教育的毛入学率仅为8%，是世界上最低的。然而，对于整个非洲大陆的决策者来说，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年消除贫困的工具包中公平获得高质量的高等教育。这种对受教育人口的推动与一个现实相吻合，即在许多非洲国家，高等教育的需求远远超过供应，只能由富人通过移民来解决。跨越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已经相当成熟的国家，三分之一的注册学生都来自国际远程教育（IDE）群体。尽管它对非洲高等教育的重要性，以及它对整个大陆发展挑战的潜在贡献，IDE的运作仍然研究不足。因此，该项目填补了知识方面的一个重大而及时的空白，将产生对整个非洲未来十年的社会和经济发展具有重大意义的知识，该项目侧重于对IDE在非洲未来取得成功至关重要的两个领域：平等接受教育的机会和教育质量。在其他环境中对IDE的研究表明，这种学习方式可以改善面临人口和社会劣势的学生（包括性别，种族和残疾，以及学习者在以后的生活或学习者照顾责任）的机会。该项目将在非洲背景下调查这些问题，提出“IDE能否为整个非洲大陆的学生带来公平的机会？“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并达到相应的水平。其他研究也表明，来自非传统背景的学生的保留率明显较低。该项目将调查教育质量在这里扮演的角色，询问“如何评估IDE的质量，以及可以做出哪些改进来创造更好的学生成绩？“该项目将审查南非大学（2014年前南非唯一的DE提供者）向非洲大陆其他地方的学生提供的IDE。研究将采用定性和定量方法，收集津巴布韦、莱索托和尼日利亚三个国家学生群体的人口和社会经济数据、学习原因、劳动力市场意向、移徙计划和教育经验。这将与南非学生和面对面学习的学生进行比较。该项目还将建立在学习设计倡议（OULDI）的基础上。使用从这个创新的方案，现有的学生表现和原因进行分析，将作出改变，学习设计，并设计变化的影响将在下一年的队列进行测试。这种知识交流将使现有的和成功的OULDI战略在另一种情况下被采用，并加强OULDI的未来发展。该项目的成功核心是来自英国和南非顶级DE机构的研究人员团队。这两所大学是非洲大陆学习地理学的领导者，并与IDE领域的主要参与者建立了联系，该项目的研究结果将为这两个机构的教学方法提供信息。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合作研究方面有着成功的记录，并拥有来自每个国家的强大的合作研究团队。该项目以后殖民理论和政治为基础，旨在全球范围内试验IDE的双向学习。

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.