This book explores the state of open education in terms of self-directed learning on the African continent. Through a combination of conceptual, systematic literature review and empirical chapters, readers will get a research-based impression of these aspects in this area. Apart from presenting existing wider trends regarding open education, this book also reports on effective open practices in support of self-directed learning.

This book explores the state of open education in terms of self-directed learning on the African continent. Through a combination of conceptual, systematic literature review and empirical chapters, readers will get a research-based impression of these aspects in this area. Apart from presenting existing wider trends regarding open education, this book also reports on effective open practices in support of self-directed learning.

This book presents how to keep working on education in contexts of crisis, such as emergencies, zones of conflict, wars and health pandemics such as COVID-19. Specifically, this work shows a number of strategies to support global learning and teaching in online settings. Particularly, it first presents how to facilitate knowledge sharing and raising awareness about a specific crisis, to increase people’s safety, including educators and learners. The book then discusses various techniques, mechanisms and services that could be implemented to provide effective learning support for learners, especially in learning environments that they do not daily use, such as physical classrooms. Further, the work presents how to teach and support online educators, no matter if they are school teachers, university lecturers, youth social workers, vocational training facilitators or of any other kind. Finally, it describes worldwide case studies that have applied practical steps to keep education running during a crisis. This book provides readers with insights and guidelines on how to maintain learning undisrupted during contexts of crisis. It also provides basic and practical recommendations to the various stakeholders in educational contexts (students, content providers, technology services, policy makers, school teachers, university lecturers, academic managers, and others) about flexible, personalised and effective education in the context of crisis.

Educational Technology is the right couple to a radical innovation. Thanks to the appropriate technology in the right context with the best fit to the target audience, education can be drastically improved, meaning a better performance, competence achievement, match with the user’s expectations and with the market needs. Serious games, Virtual reality, Augmented reality, Remote labs, Online learning, Blockchain, Mobile learning and many other key technologies allow for a better explanation of so many subjects, and even more: for a complete student involvement and a full teacher engagement into the educational system. Technology gives another angle to the same content, provides the user with a personalised experience and pushes the limits of knowledge a little further, every time. This book presents a number of radical innovations through technology, from experienced cases studies, to be replicated and inspired by; a powerful resource handbook for cutting-edge education.

This edited volume uses an African-centred approach to examine a renewed vision of development education in Africa. The purpose of the volume is to supplant prevailing Western ideologies, traditions, and rhetoric in the development education discourse in Africa and to advocate for alternative paradigms, knowledges, beliefs, and practices through the effort of dialogue between competing orientations, values and experiences. The book argues that Africa's development challenges are uniquely African requiring indigenous African solutions. Consequently, this book offers an insightful collection of case studies and conceptual papers that examine how indigenous African knowledge, philosophies, traditions, beliefs, and values shape the theory and practice of development education in Africa. Reimagining Development Education in Africa exemplifies an interdisciplinary and multifaceted scholarship, addressing topical issues and advances in development education in Africa. The book discusses among other topics, Ubuntu-inspired education for sustainable development, decolonising African development education, Afrocentricity, Globalisation, and gender equality. This book is a must read for scholars and students interested in understanding indigenous educational efforts aimed at promoting sustained improvements in the quality of life of African peoples.

Many people believe education in Africa is in a state of crisis. More than 45 million African children do not attend school. In many places, classes are held outside, under tents or trees, and schools often do not have such essential supplies as chalk and textbooks. Yet there have also been significant improvements in recent years. More young Africans are able to attend school today than a generation ago, and the governments of many countries are attempting to address the problems in their educational systems. This book chronicles the development of educational systems in Africa, from the colonial era to the present day. It examines the current state of education in Africa, discussing the effect that the continents poverty has on funding schools and explaining the persistence of educational inequalities.

This paper reports a review of journal articles listed in the British Education Index and the Cumulative Index of Journals of Education under the keywords of "inset" or "inservice" and either Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, or one of the 50 sub-Saharan African countries by name. Reports from Nigeria and South Africa form a substantial part of the literature. The paper reviews the articles by subject: (1) "Conditions in Which Teachers Work," (2) "Variation in Teachers' Backgrounds, Practices, and In-service Needs," (3) "Teachers Changing Their Own Practice," (4) "In-service Activities Provide New Knowledge and Skills," (5) "Use of Distance Education," (6) "School Administration, Organization, and Whole School Policies," (7) "Sustainable Change versus Radical Solutions," and (8)"Closing Commentary." The paper also reviews the articles in reverse chronological order. Finally, the paper presents listings by country. (SM)

This book presents how Digital Transformation is a requirement to upgrade Latin American universities to a next level in management, lecturing and learning processes and strategies. The book starts with a thorough introduction of the Latin American context addressing the three main topics in the book: Digital Transformation, Higher Education and Artificial Intelligence & Industry 4.0. They will be depicted by region, with a clear distribution between Central America & Mexico, Comunidad Andina (Perú, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia), Mercosur (Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay), and other countries. The book also shows how online learning is a key part of the transformation, with a clear focus on learning management systems, innovation and learning analytics. Further, personalised services for every single profile at the university (students, lecturers, academic managers) are presented to guarantee inclusive education service aggregation for networked campuses. Following, the book addresses strategy and overall services that concentrate on sustainability and revenue models integrated with a strategic planning. Finally a set of chapters will show specific experiences and case studies of direct application of Artificial Intelligence and Technology 4.0, where the readers can learn from and transfer directly into their educational contexts.

Learning Analytics become the key for Personalised Learning and Teaching thanks to the storage, categorisation and smart retrieval of Big Data. Thousands of user data can be tracked online via Learning Management Systems, instant messaging channels, social networks and other ways of communication. Always with the explicit authorisation from the end user, being a student, a teacher, a manager or a persona in a different role, an instructional designer can design a way to produce a practical dashboard that helps him improve that very user’s performance, interaction, motivation or just grading. This book provides a thorough approach on how education, as such, from teaching to learning through management, is improved by a smart analysis of available data, making visible and useful behaviours, predictions and patterns that are hinder to the regular eye without the process of massive data.

This book brings together education research and practice carried out by An-Najah National University, a lead Higher Institution in Palestine that managed to move from a face-to-face setting to a fully online learning and teaching environment during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, within a month, seamlessly, which makes a success cases study of virtualization. This book concentrates on approaches to ensure the continuous improvement and quality of higher education provision across the country, with particular focus on: a) learning and teaching methodologies in online settings; b) use of open education as a key resource; and c) development of academic capability building, along with academic and knowledge exchange with other higher education partners. Innovative ideas, best practices, and comparative case studies are presented, discussed, and compared with international ones to make specific recommendations for a successful and sustainable implementation.