Accessibility of Digital Higher Education in the Global South

Accessibility of Digital Higher Education in the Global South
Author: Mashau, Pfano
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2023-12-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 166849180X

Accessibility of Digital Higher Education in the Global South, authored by Pfano Mashau and Tshililo Farisani from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is an academic book that examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education in Africa. The book aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability of the “new normal” approaches in African universities and institutions of learning as well as government responses to teaching and learning processes during and post pandemic. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 triggered demands for informal, comfortable, and self-designed spaces that go beyond conventional formal classrooms where students can take initiative and demonstrate independence in learning. However, access to digitalized teaching methods remains problematic due to the digital divide among learners and the rural-urban dichotomy. The book invites researchers, academics, and scholars in the Global South to contribute to the narrative to document successes in and improve the higher education sector post pandemic. The book covers a range of themes including the sustainability of digitalized teaching approaches; integrative and interactive teaching and learning theories and practices; government responses to teaching and learning processes; comparative analysis of conventional and digitalized teaching and learning approaches; and equality, diversity, and participation in digitalized teaching and learning platforms, among others.

Critical Reflections on the Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Global South

Critical Reflections on the Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Global South
Author: Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2024-04-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1804557803

If you are involved in academia, policy-making, or are simply curious about the complex features of internationalisation in the Global South, this work is your roadmap to deeper, more critical reflections on the internationalisation of higher education.

Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South

Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South
Author: Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
Publisher: African Minds
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2018-01-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1928331483

Education in the Global South faces several key interrelated challenges, for which Open Educational Resources (OER) are seen to be part of the solution. These challenges include: unequal access to education; variable quality of educational resources, teaching, and student performance; and increasing cost and concern about the sustainability of education. The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project seeks to build on and contribute to the body of research on how OER can help to improve access, enhance quality and reduce the cost of education in the Global South. This volume examines aspects of educator and student adoption of OER and engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in secondary and tertiary education as well as teacher professional development in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. The ROER4D studies and syntheses presented here aim to help inform Open Education advocacy, policy, practice and research in developing countries.

Accessible Technology and the Developing World

Accessible Technology and the Developing World
Author: Michael Ashley Stein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-10-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 019258541X

When digital content and technologies are designed in a way that is inaccessible for persons with disabilities, they are locked out of commerce, education, employment, and access to government information. In developing areas of the world, as new technical infrastructures are being built, it is especially important to ensure that accessibility is a key design goal. Unfortunately, nearly all research on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility and innovation for persons with disabilities-whether from the legal, technical, or development fields-has focused on developed countries, with very little being written about developing world initiatives. Accessible Technology and the Developing World aims to change this, by bringing increased attention to ICT accessibility in developing areas. This book brings together a unique combination of contributors with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including authors from well-known non-governmental organizations, significant United Nations entities, and universities in both the developing and developed world. Together, they present a unique and much needed review of this critical and growing area of work, and primarily address three core themes - the lack of attention given to innovations taking place in the developing world, the need to ensure that infrastructures in the Global South do not present barriers to people with disabilities, and the need to exercise caution when applying techniques from the Global North to the Global South that won't transfer effectively. This book will be of use to researchers in the fields of civil rights, development studies, disability rights, disability studies, human-computer interaction and accessibility, human rights, international law, political science, and universal design.

Transforming Higher Education Through Universal Design for Learning

Transforming Higher Education Through Universal Design for Learning
Author: Seán Bracken
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2019-02-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1351132059

Providing insight into the background, theory and practical applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transforming Higher Education through Universal Design for Learning: An International Perspective examines and shares best practice in UDL implementation worldwide to provide strategies for strengthening student accessibility, engagement and learning outcomes through the development of flexible learning environments. Drawing upon insightful, research-based contributions from educators and student service specialists in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Spain, the UK and all across the USA, this book: considers diversity in the form of disability, minority ethnic groups, gender identities, first generation university students and varying socio-economic backgrounds; brings together key thinkers and actors in the field of UDL and expertly maps its practices to the higher educational domain; explores the multiple means of representation, expression and engagement that combine to create a successful UDL framework. Each chapter not only provides a different perspective of how UDL has helped meet the needs of all students to ensure that education is accessible, culturally responsive and socially just, but also considers how this can then be implemented into higher education environments the world over. This book is a crucial read for those who want to make a positive difference in higher education provision and outcomes.

Access, Equity and Engagement in Online Learning in TESOL

Access, Equity and Engagement in Online Learning in TESOL
Author: Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2024-10-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1040176720

This volume explores difficulties facing TESOL education’s transition to online learning in the Global South and Southeast Asia/Asia Pacific region, highlighting innovations of educators in engaging learners, thereby exploring the key themes of access, engagement, and equity in the field. Discussing themes such as academic burnout, cultural competence, and emotional regulation strategies in challenging educational contexts, this novel volume gives voice to field experiences encountered in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Oman, Vietnam, China, and Iran. Chapters demonstrate how a lack of access to reliable internet connectivity and a shortage of digital devices, especially in rural areas, compound limited opportunities for students already facing educational inequalities, presenting the innovative and creative ways English educators are responding to these situations. Across interviews and qualitative studies, the book demonstrates that issues surrounding engagement with, access to, and equity within, the remote and online educational context are wider and longer lasting than the recent pandemic period itself and are at the forefront of challenges facing these regions today. Highlighting English educators’ resilience, perseverance, and creativity in challenging circumstances, the book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in open and distance education, eLearning, bilingualism/ESL, and distribution of technology in educational settings.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Internationalization of Higher Education in the Global South

The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Internationalization of Higher Education in the Global South
Author: Juliet Thondhlana
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1350139262

This Handbook covers a wide range of historical perspectives, realities, research and practice of internationalization of higher education (IHE) in the global south and makes comparisons to IHE issues in the global north. Drawing on the expertise of 32 academics and policy makers based in and originating from four key regions of focus: Sub-Saharan Africa; North Africa and the Middle East; Asia Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean. Across 24 chapters the editors and contributors provide a diverse and unparalleled expose of the status and future aspirations of institutions and nations in relation to IHE. This is the first comprehensive analysis of this growing field and expands the scope of research in the field of comparative and international education in terms of theory and policy development. Includes 36 chapters written by: Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman, Salem Abodher, Giovanni Anzola-Pardo, Aref Al Attari, Norzaini Azman, Teklu Abate Bekele, Abdellah Benahnia, Andrés Bernasconi, Daniela Craciun, Hans de Wit, Futao Huang, Jocelyne Gacel-Ávila, Evelyn Chiyevo Garwe, Javier González, Gifty Oforiwaa Gyamera, Xiao HAN, Mohamed Salah Harzallah, Bola Ibrahim, Annette Insanally, Sunwoong Kim, Aliya Kuzhabekov, Kamel Mansi, Simon McGrath, Francisco Marmolejo, Georgiana Mihut, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Ibrahim Ogachi Oanda, Bandele Olusola Oyewole, Rakgadi Phatlane, Francisca Puyol, Laura E. Rumbley, Chika T Sehoole, Wenqin SHEN, Luz Inmaculada Madera Soriano, Wondwosen Tamrat, Juliet Thondhlana, Julie Vardhan, Chang Da Wan, Anthony Welch, Ayenachew A. Woldegiyorgis, Renée Zicman.

Digital Inequalities in the Global South

Digital Inequalities in the Global South
Author: Massimo Ragnedda
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2020-06-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 303032706X

This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem – a binary division between ‘haves and have-nots’ – to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.

Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and Information for Science

Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and Information for Science
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2004-07-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309091454

This symposium, which was held on March 10-11, 2003, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, brought together policy experts and managers from the government and academic sectors in both developed and developing countries to (1) describe the role, value, and limits that the public domain and open access to digital data and information have in the context of international research; (2) identify and analyze the various legal, economic, and technological pressures on the public domain in digital data and information, and their potential effects on international research; and (3) review the existing and proposed approaches for preserving and promoting the public domain and open access to scientific and technical data and information on a global basis, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries.