A Kenyan Cloud School. Massive Open Online & Ongoing Courses for Blended and Lifelong Learning

Abstract

This research describes the predicted outcomes of a Kenyan Cloud School (KCS), which is a MOOC that contains all courses taught at the secondary school level in Kenya. This MOOC will consist of online, ongoing subjects in both English and Kiswahili. The KCS subjects offer self-testing and peer assessment to maximize scalability, and digital badges to show progress and completion to recognize and validate non-formal learning. The KCS uses the Moodle LMS with responsive web design to increase ubiquitous access from any device. Access is free and open, and the KCS intends to be a contextualized open educational resource for formal secondary institutions to support blended learning and a free source of non-formal education for lifelong learning. The expected outcomes are that this effort will reduce secondary school dropout rates, improve test scores, become a quality resource for blended learning, as well as validate and recognize lifelong learning in Kenya.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Sub-Saharan African Higher Education Landscape: A Bibliometric Review

“…In line with the above-mentioned measures, 30 articles were found relevant to the focus of the systematic bibliometric review. However, three articles: Applying MOOCocracy learning culture themes to improve digital course design and online learner engagement by Akinkulie & Shortt (2020) Digital neo-colonialism and massive open online courses (MOOCs): colonial pasts and neoliberal futures, by Adam Taskeen [35] and A Kenyan Cloud School: Massive Open Online & Ongoing courses for blended and lifelong learning by Jobe [36] despite its focus on Secondary school education level because it appears to be one of the first of its kind in SSA and offers interesting insights in to the development and testing of MOOCs at that level. They were also included despite their broad focus on MOOCs and its fundamental goals and contributes to the understanding of MOOCs from historical, philosophical, and pragmatic principles of implementation, and make the case for MOOCs based on the unique context of underserved communities rather than on neoliberal philosophical world view of openness and accessibility.…”

MOOCs and OER in the Global South: Problems and Potential

“…Other ways of improving access include the use of low-resolution video content (Liyanagunawardena et al, 2013), audio files and transcripts (Haßler & Jackson, 2009;Richter & McPherson, 2012), promoting off-peak bandwidth usage (Daniel & West, 2006), leveraging cloud-based technology (Jobe, 2013;Nabil, 2013), and making resources downloadable for use offline (Daniel et al, 2015) via Universal Serial Bus devices (USBs; Garrote et al, 2011).…”

Los MOOC para profesores en ejercicio: el caso de Uganda y las lecciones para África

“…El MOOC de KCS son asignaturas en marcha online tanto en inglés como en suajili, con funciones de autoevaluación y de evaluación entre compañeros, así como credenciales digitales y certificados de aptitud que reconocen y validan el aprendizaje no-formal (Jobe, 2013). KCS está construido con un diseño web preparado para aumentar el acceso desde cualquier punto y desde cualquier dispositivo y su acceso es gratuito y abierto para todos los estudiantes.…”

“…En segundo lugar, los profesores a menudo se resisten al uso la tecnología y el e-learning porque carecen del tiempo necesario para la preparación de nuevas lecciones o la reelaboración de las ya existentes empleando las TIC. De hecho, la cuestión del tiempo limitado del que disponen los profesores para el aprendizaje y uso de las TIC en sus enseñanzas, ha sido ampliamente reseña-da en otros estudios específicos de caso por países, como por ejemplo Sudáfrica (Mathipa y Mukhari, 2014), Kenia (Jobe, 2013), Uganda (Markon, 2013) y Ghana (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012). En el área de desarrollo de contenidos, Ngimwa y Wilson (2012) culpan del estancamiento de la adopción de recursos educativos abiertos (REA) en el África subsahariana al bajo nivel de alfabetización digital de los pro-revista española de pedagogía año LXXV, nº 266, enero-abril 2017, 121-141 fesores.…”