Emerging trends in digital education in African Higher Education

Side events

Africa Europe Week

Information

Digitalisation of higher education has been brought into sharp focus during the pandemic. Our session will hear views from the AU Commission on its strategy for the future of digital higher education and EU’s ongoing work and vision for digital education in Africa.

Even before the pandemic there was increasing recognition that digital technologies had the potential to transform the university, offer students more choice and bring researchers and academic communities together. The last two years have taught us that we can do things differently, universities have experimented and innovated, allowing for a new perspective on higher education. Most commentators now believe that the future of higher education is blended and that we must continue to innovate and embed new technologies into our universities.

Our session will hear from experts, organisations and users of tertiary education who have been involved in digitalisation collaborations, and action research projects committed to sharing ideas and innovating together. We will look at some of the challenges, hear from our panel of experts and share with you some ideas for the future role of digital in the university.

Parallel break-out sessions descriptions

DAAD - Open Digital Formats within African HEI Networks : click here to join the session

DAAD will highlight their DIGI-FACE– a new platform to connect capacity building, learning & research. The Digital Initiative for African Centres of Excellence (DIGI-FACE) is three-year DAAD funded project with option of another 2-year prolongation. The project supports the digital needs and capacities of partner universities, students and alumni of DAAD African Centres of Excellence and their networks via the development of e- and blended learning modules and digital tools. The platform has several tools and functions, for example the teaching and learning management system Moodle, collaborative tools, a project management tool for research and PhD-projects, as well as a research and publish space. Generic postgraduate level courses and further training courses for students and academic staff are generated using innovative methods and cutting-edge online teaching and learning methods. These generic courses, such as technology enhanced teaching and learning and research methodologies, are being used as exemplars for the Centres of African Excellence to create and integrate their own courses into the platform using the equipment provided for producing digital content.

Speakers are:

Moderator: Michael Hoerig
Michael Hoerig
Alexander Knoth
Paul Webb/South Africa
Susan Kurgat/Kenya
Eva Rothenpieler

Campus France - Digitalisation, innovation, inclusion and gender : click here to join the session

The session will cover topics relating to: teaching innovation, inclusion and gender. Digitalization has impacted on the teaching and learning environment and new forms of teaching have been developed. New teaching formats have the power to reach wider groups of young people who may not have been reached by traditional formats. The session is organised in close cooperation with the members of the Africa Commission of the Campus France Forum, where experts of French higher education institutions come together.

Speakers are:

Jean Michelle Nicolle
Moussa Lo
Anne-Francoise Zattora-Gros
Emanuel Catumbela

British Council/Nuffic - Digital Transformation and Pathways to Employability

Education and research improves lives, and technology improves research and education. The university endeavour is further interwoven in the fabric of society, driving innovation, social development and the labour market. Even before the pandemic, there was increasing recognition of the importance of digitalisation and the use of technology across the university – this drive has been irreversibly accelerated.

Digital transformation, which looks at research which has focused on national and institutional digital related policy and strategy for university leaders and policy-makers; and digital literacy, skills and competencies of academics, professional services and university leadership.

We will further explore how universities are addressing national and international labour market requirements and deliver skilled graduates able to operate in a digitalized world. Innovation is at the heart of this equation. During this session we will hear from those organisation who are located at the interface between university, industry and the student.

Through dialogue, we will consider how to forge partnerships that contribute to building digital competencies across educational pathways and build thought leadership between Europe and Africa. The session will include voices from technology experts, university leadership as well as youth and industry.

Speakers are: