This article traces the impact of the Ginigoada Foundation on the educational development of thousands of children and adults in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Port Moresby, capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG), had been noted for the lack of educational opportunities for the majority of the population who lived in urban villages and squatter…

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interplay between policy formulation and implementation in terms of the historical practices of open distance learning (ODL) in Rwanda. This paper draws on the Foucauldian genealogical and governmentality analysis. The paper examines government aspirations as depicted in policy statements starting from…

Developing sustainable and scalable educational initiatives is a key challenge in low-income countries where donor-funded short-term projects are limited by both contextual factors and programme design. In this commentary we examine some of the issues related to in-service teacher development in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, grounded…

Distance higher education has only relatively recently been established in some Latin American countries, as part of wider higher education reforms. The developments of distance education have been the result of sustained efforts of leading thinkers and practitioners in the region. In this article, several leading distance education professionals…

This case study explores students' perceptions of the creation and reuse of digital teaching and learning resources in their work as tutors as part of a volunteer community development organisation at a large South African University. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, student-tutors reflect on their use and reuse of digital…

This paper sets out the ways in which technologies for learning have been at the heart of education for development for millennia, not as is sometimes thought only in the last 30 years of the digital revolution. Short case studies of the University of London External System and the Open University UK set out the development outcomes of these major…

This study adopted bibliometric and content analysis methods to explore research trends on eLearning implementation in Tanzania between 2007 and 2017. A total of 74 articles from electronic databases, conference proceedings, and selected electronic journals were reviewed. The study found out that there is an increasing interest in eLearning…

Education is at the core of South Africa's national development. The National Development Plan recognizes the potential of education to transform individuals and drive attainment of other development goals. The country's higher education system is characterized by low participation and high attrition. This presents challenges for the attainment of…

This paper is an attempt to describe the situation of higher education in Asia including the challenges it faced as well as the open and distance elearning initiatives by different countries and universities. Data gathering was done through review of online documents and websites as well as documentation of the different initiatives especially by…

Many universities are currently exploring the factors that impact implementation of blended learning policies and institutions. In the Caribbean this is particularly important as financial support by governments in the region has dwindled in the context of a global recession, and universities are seeking ways to reduce costs and increase access.…

Kenya, like many African countries, has faced enormous challenges in the production of and access to quality relevant teaching and learning materials and resources in primary and secondary school classrooms. This has been occasioned by a plethora of factors which include, but are not limited to, lack of finances, tradition, competence, and the…

At the heart of the open educational resources (OER) movement is the intention to provide affordable access to culturally relevant education to all. This imperative could be described as a desire to provide education in a manner consistent with social justice which, according to Fraser (2005), is understood as "parity of participation".…

This paper investigates the degree to which recent digital Open Education literature is aligned to social justice principles, starting with the first UNESCO definition of Open Educational Resources (OER). A critical analysis of 19 texts was undertaken to track dominant and alternative ideas shaping the development of Open Education since 2002 as…

Affordable access to higher education is a major challenge for small Pacific island nations. The University of the South Pacific which is owned and governed by twelve island nations in this region plays a special role in meeting this challenge. In its fiftieth year, a few recent developments at USP provide a useful case study for how this…

Like all organisations, good governance is a fundamental requirement for the responsible and accountable management of universities in general and open universities in particular. This is to ensure that these (open) universities remain relevant to their mission of facilitating unfettered access to higher education for citizens and at the same time…