Online Education, International Cooperation and Sustainable Development in Sudan

Abstract

This article describes three online learning experiences carried out between 2017 and 2021 by Comboni College of Science and Technology, a Sudanese higher education institution in a context characterized by frequent power cuts, irregular and limited access to the internet, lack of preparedness of the teaching staff and very limited digital skills among students. These educational interventions consisted of two international cooperation projects and a learning experience through Moodle during the COVID-19 lockdown from where it was possible to collect data on students' performance and compare them with those obtained under ordinary conditions through a paired sample t-test. The research analyses these three online educational interventions, the context in which they took place and their posterior outcomes sometime later in the framework of the relation between higher education, human capital development and job insertion. The study reveals that in addition to the connectivity problems inherent to the context, some soft skills are supposed to be considered in the selection or training of the learners like time management and acquaintance with the use of an e-mail account. The research also reveals that any international e-learning project in Least Developed Country (LDC) should consider that most students do not own a personal laptop and access to the internet through their Smartphone. Moreover, students of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based university programs have a better predisposition than others for online programs. The study highlights the importance of computer literacy courses in the first semester of undergraduate programs for non-ICT related programs and of the presence of a physical tutor to ensure the success of any international educational project, even with students of ICT based university degrees, which may be particularly relevant once the war in progress stops and the field will be open for international cooperation in the educational field.