Improving Student Learning by Building Infrastructure, Capacities and Competencies: A Multinational e-Learning Partnership and Initiative

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems worldwide, requiring many higher education institutions (HEIs) to make immediate shifts towards online course and program delivery. While leaders simultaneously sought innovative solutions, many lacked the infrastructure to make such time-sensitive and resource-intensive changes. With substantive foundation funding, one private university in Africa partnered with one public university in the United States of America (USA) and co-designed and coimplemented an e-Learning initiative to deliver high-quality, inclusive e-Learning. Using a participatory evaluation approach and an evaluation framework that accounts for structural and institutional inequities in education, researchers representing both universities also co-examined this e-Learning initiative’s impacts, including its successes and challenges, using survey instruments, interviews, and focus groups. In this research paper, the authors provide some background to contextualize the research project, present details on the methodology used to conduct the research project and present the results via four key themes: participants’ experiences, successes, challenges, and implications and recommendations. The paper concludes with a discussion on the key findings of the research project and how they impact theory and practice in e-Learning.