EXAF signs a partnership with the Association of African Universities
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A partnership has been signed between the EPFL Excellence in Africa Centre (EXAF) and the Association of African Universities (AAU) to support several African Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact). It aims to strengthen the host universities as Centres of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE).
Six (6) ACE Impact host institutions will be supported by the EXAF team to become Centres of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE). This will promote the sustainable integration of digital education into educational processes as a means of enhancing the quality of education as well as the skills of graduates.
the project will develop "hardware" and "software" elements. A studio with multimedia equipment and IT infrastructure necessary to produce online courses (MOOC - Massive Open Online courses) will be constructed. Technicians from each university will then be trained to operate the production studios. Training in digital education will also be provided to local experts in instructional design as well as a few dozen professors.
This training in digital education will be delivered using MOOCs and personalised remote coaching by digital education experts, using a wide range of digital technologies.
This training programme will put theory into practice by focusing on the transformation of existing face-to-face courses into online ones. It will enable the assimilation of pedagogical tools and practices to teach using digital technology. Finally, it will develop courses and make them available to the entire community of learners. Thus, learning strategies, lesson plans and examples of curriculum will be reviewed from a digital perspective.
The implementation of the C-CoDEs, together with the trainings, will contribute to the sustainable integration of digital education and technologies in the instruction provided at each partner university. It should ultimately lead to the pooling of teaching between the universities.
In short, the initiative will provide participating institutions with the training and support needed to transform their curricula by integrating modern digital teaching methods.
The Association of African Universities, as the regional facilitation unit of the ACE Impact project, is using World Bank funds under the ACE Impact project to finance the activities of this initiative. EPFL, a leader in digital education in Europe, has extensive experience in using digital tools to improve education.
The selected centres will contribute to the design, production and dissemination of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open educational resources (OERs). The overall objective is that the selected centres will be able to serve other African institutions using a train-the-trainer model, within the ACE Impact portfolio and beyond, throughout the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region.
Background information
The Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project is a World Bank initiative in collaboration with governments of participating countries to support Higher Education institutions in specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Agriculture, and Health. The Project aims to promote regional specialization among participating universities in areas that address specific common regional development challenges. lt also strengthens the capacities of these universities to deliver high quality training and applied research as well as meet the demand for skills required for Africa's development. Based on the initial successes, the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) in collaboration with the African governments, launched the ACE Impact Project in 2018 to strengthen post-graduate training and applied research in existing fields and support new fields that are essential for Africa's economic growth. There are 43 ACEs (25 new ones and 18 from ACE I); 5 Emerging Centers;1 "top up" center in Social Risk Management; and 5 Colleges and Schools of Engineering.
About the Association of African Universities (AAU)
The Association of African Universities is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization created by African Universities to promote cooperation among them on the one hand, and between them and the international academic community on the other. Created in 1967, the AAU is the voice of higher education in Africa. AAU aims to improve the quality of African higher education, and to strengthen its contribution to Africa's development by supporting the core functions of higher education institutions and facilitating critical reflection and consensus building on issues affecting higher education in Africa. The AAU is the Regional Facilitation Unit of the Africa Centres of Excellence project.
About the French Development Agency
For more than 75 years, the French Development Agency (AFD) has been fighting global poverty by supporting policies and investments that benefit the poorest populations. Strengthening the social link between individuals, groups and territories is now at the heart of its actions in education, health, employment, urban planning, climate or biodiversity. For AFD, balanced development requires a real reduction in inequalities.