Impact of ICT‐based distance learning: the African story
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470310499867 |
| Date | 01 October 2003 |
| Pages | 476-486 |
| Published date | 01 October 2003 |
| Author | Pieter A. van Brakel,Justin Chisenga |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Impact of ICT-based
distance learning: the
African story
Pieter A. van Brakel and
Justin Chisenga
Introduction
The phenomenal developments with regard
to information technology (IT), and
particularly within the information and
communications (ICT) domains, are having a
significant impact on all areas of human
activity. Among the developed nations most
of these developments are taken for granted.
In their higher education systems teachers
and students alike exchange ideas with
colleagues via e-mail. They sometimes out of
necessity deliberate an important scientific
issue ``live'' by means of interactive chats or
videoconferences. It has become an automatic
and day-to-day endeavour to effortlessly move
between different search engines, information
hubs or directories, recognized for their
provision of high quality current full-text
scientific information. This effortlessness is
replicated nowadays on one's personal
computer sporting a sophisticated suite of
applications software, already viewed by
end-users as the absolute essential
requirements for getting the job done.
However, the capability of importing and
exporting segments of text from/to external
and internal sources was once seen as a
difficult task to accomplish.
ITC developments, especially since the
conception of the Internet and the Web, also
made inroads into a more specialised field of
tertiary education, namely distance education
(also known as distance teaching and
learning). In today's developed countries,
using e-mail and the World Wide Web for
teaching and learning, without being
restricted by time and space, is seen as a
necessity; no distance learning programme is
feasible without the interactivity provided by
the Internet to both teacher and learner. It is
in this ICT-based context that the term
lifelong learning could find its real meaning;
in a rapidly changing, technology-based world
preliminary education is insufficient to
prepare an individual for a lifetime's work.
Today, all sectors of the distance learning
process at all its levels ± from mere
communication between lecturer and learner
to the final assessment of the content learned
± are linked to IT-related facilities. It can be
said that within the demands of today's world
every effective distance learning course uses
some aspect of the current ICT.
Furthermore, a new type of ICT-based
distance learning is unfolding as a result of the
The authors
Pieter A. van Brakel is a Professor and Justin Chisenga
is a Doctoral student, both in the Department of
Information Science, Rand Afrikaans University,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Keywords
Distance learning, Information management, Internet,
Electronic mail, Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
Neither distance learning courses nor utilising information
and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance these
courses are new to sub-Saharan Africa. ``Long-distance''
training by correspondence has been practised here for
decades. ICT as basic as e-mail has the potential to
enable the remotely situated student to interactively take
part in a particular programme. Additional equipment can
simulate the lecture environment by allowing the student
to watch a video of a presentation while communicating
via telephone. This article is an investigation of the status
quo of ICT-based distance learning in sub-Saharan Africa.
Broad trends were derived from the multitude of sources
on the topic, depicting just as many examples of
programmes currently being maintained. ICT inroads in
Africa are addressed; the problems to acquire and
maintain these are discussed, as well as ICT's potential
role in future distance learning programmes. Examples of
public-private partnerships are highlighted. It is
emphasised that only through these partnerships will
African tertiary institutions succeed in increasing the
output of their much needed graduates.
Electronic access
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
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476
The Electronic Library
Volume 21 .Number 5 .2003 .pp. 476-486
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470310499867
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