E-learning boosts brain-gain and reduces costs

Experts have called on African universities to immediately adopt the philosophy of brain-gain, facilitated by e-learning programmes, in a bid to reduce the cost of academic services and management, and invest more money in research and development.

This was highlighted at last month’s eLearning Africa conference in Kigali, Rwanda, where IT experts from Africa and around the world gathered to exchange knowledge about beneficial aspects relating to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

While it seems that many established universities are reluctant to adopt e-learning models, with senior lecturers preferring to utilise traditional ways of teaching and learning, new higher education institutions are eager to employ open learning sources, in order to save funds and rather invest these in other projects.

E-learning would cut costs

For example, the average net monthly salary of a university professor, who is not based in Rwanda, ranges between US$1,000-$1,500, exclusive of fringe benefits. Some experts say that this cost could be halved.

Head of Academic Affairs and Rwanda University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Nelson Ijumba said that the impact of brain-gain had begun to pay off, with universities cutting down on the cost of lecturers having to travel abroad for training and specialisation.

“We are investing a lot in terms of ICT infrastructure to make sure that we have facilities and resources where people can lecture – and many of them are willing to participate. It is one of the advantages of ICT and is helping us to cut costs,” he added.

No travel expenses

Ijumba said that if the university paid transport and communication fees to a visiting professor, based in Kigali, his or her e-learning lecture could reach students at remote campuses. The cost would therefore be just the lecturer’s fee and would not include travelling expenses.

He added: “Previously, we conducted restructuring that saw as many as seven campuses and colleges relocating around the country, and this disrupted learning, but – with e-learning teaching and learning studios – lecturers cannot complain or make an excuse not to provide lectures.”

While the university had been spending more on printing materials, however, Ijumba said that almost 2,000 modules, developed by lecturers using Moodle platforms to digitise online content, were now accessible online.

African lecturers returning home

The founder and executive director of eLearning Africa, Rebecca Stromeyer, said this brain-gain had also resulted in young African lecturers, based abroad and in lucrative positions, being attracted back to their home countries.

“When I was in Benin, the universities had big problems because their experts or very young professors didn’t want to come back to teach because the salaries were low, and there was also this phobia that some professors were retiring and, subsequently, their knowledge was at stake,” she added.

“One of the solutions they applied was that a university professor had many lectures to give and was to apply these on some of the e-learning platforms. This helped to cut the cost of shipping professors from abroad,” she said.

Gathering data globally

Professor Paul Birevu Muyinda, of Makerere University in Uganda, who moderated a number of massive open online courses (MOOCs) at HE institutions, said that e-learning helped to gather data from around the world.

“When I was doing my PhD on mobile learning, I was supposed to collect data from different places and, throughout the research, I was able to experience the relevance of e-learning. Without it, I would not have managed to harvest as much data as I wanted from different parts of the continent,” he explained.

Muyinda added that his university was running a programme called “Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning”, which tapped into expertise and specialisation at other African universities, and enriched learning and research.

Blended courses are in demand

“In that project, we create blended learning courses [that are] … in demand within East Africa. For example, the University of Rwanda was able to offer numerical analysis in mathematical courses,” Muyinda said.

While many lecturers at conventional HE institutions still pursue old-fashioned teaching methods that use printed modules, experts believe that the adoption of brain-gain, in tandem with e-learning, will not only significantly reduce the costs of teaching but also help senior professors embrace the benefits of ICT in education.