THE 7TH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION 2024 CONFERENCE

7 th African Council for Distance Education 2024 Conference

Venue:
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega County, Kenya
26 th – 29 th March 2024
Theme
From recovery to resilience: Innovations in Open, Distance and Online Learning.

 

Background

Education has been the indispensable foundation for civilizations and development in Africa and the rest of the world. Ensuring inclusive and equitable access to quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all people is a major challenge for African governments. Access to quality education is a challenge that is enshrined in Agenda 2063 of the African Union (Goal 2) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4). Unfortunately, various natural, socio-political and economic constraints confounded with technological deficiencies have made it difficult for various people to access quality education in the developing countries. For instance, impacts of natural phenomena like climate change and geological ramifications have been interfering with the access to education through drought, floods, earthquakes among other disasters. Epidemics such as Ebola and Covid-19 have limited physical interactions in the exchange of education information; while invasive pests such as the desert locust and the fall armyworm threaten food security and health of teachers and learners. Socio-political and economic factors including governmental transitional challenges, ethno-religious conflicts and gender inequalities have had both direct and indirect effects on educational facilities and their access by many people in Africa. Amidst all these complex challenges, African educational systems have been bound and drawn into ideological dilemma through diplomatic relationships with conflicting foreign partners in other continents. Such diplomatic challenges have put a lot of pressure on African educational systems to conform. Besides these, technological dependence especially in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could expose African educational systems to cyber-attacks. Among such key ICT facilities are the Open Distance and e-Learning (ODEL) platforms. It is therefore necessary for African educational systems to innovatively rebuild their absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience capacities in the face of such threats.

It is against this background that the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) has organized a conference themed “From recovery to resilience: Innovations in Open, Distance and Online Learning.” To be hosted at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), Kenya to be held on 26^th – 29^th March 2024. The conference anticipates to draw participants from the academia, industry, business, religious sector, science and technology, environment and natural resources, industry and innovations, legal society, and a selection of professionals across the globe. Conference participants will have an opportunity to share experiences, practices, and innovations in response to the pandemic, to serve as a source of good practices and lessons learned to inform policy in the post-pandemic future. The conference will also be an opportunity to broaden awareness of different contexts in pursuit of synergies and solutions in the area of Open, Distance and Online Learning

Conference Sub Themes

Strand 1: Teaching & Learning

• e-Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity
• Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
• Adult, Lifelong & Distance Learning
• Online Teaching/learning and Inclusive Learning
• Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary & Transdisciplinary E-Learning

Strand 2: E-Learning Educational Structures

• Educational Policy, Leadership, Management & Administration
• Educational Research, Development & Publishing
• Professional Training, Development & Concerns in Education
• Primary, Secondary and Higher Education

Strand 3: E-Society/Cross-Cutting themes/E-Learning and Disasters

• E-learning and climate change Resilince
• E-learning, and Health
• E-Leaning and vulnerable Populations
• E-learning, language and communication

Strand 4:  Innovation and Technology

• Design, Implementation & Assessment of Innovative Technologies in Education
• Knowledge Creation, Preservation & Access

Abstract and Papers

We invite you to send a 200 - 300 word abstract to the conference e-mail address, ……… by 15th August, 2023. Selected authors will be notified by 15th September, 2023 as to whether or not their presentations will be included in the conference programme. In order to include your paper in the conference proceedings we will need to receive your full-length paper at the above email address by 15th October, 2023.
Submission requirements

• Submit your abstract (maximum 250-300 words), choosing from the presentation formats listed below (Oral, Poster​, Panel, Workshop).
• Submit before the submission deadline in order to benefit from Early Bird or Advanced Registration rates.
• Full-length paper: 4 000 - 6 000 words

Structure 

• State the strategy problem or issue being reported on.
• Describe how you implemented the strategy or explored the problem or issue.
• Report your findings.
• Draw some conclusions that will guide others facing the same problem or issue.
• References should be cited using the APA system of Referencing.

Format

• One-and-a-half spacing, Times New Roman font 12 in Ms. Word.