Bernard Nkuyubwatsi’s presentation of his #PhD research at the 5th GO-GN Seminar in Kraków, April 10th-11th, 2016.

1. www.le.ac.uk
Opening up higher education in Rwanda: The potential
contribution of Extension Massive Open Online Courses
(xMOOCs), Open Educational Resources (OER) units in
the MIT Open Courseware and different stakeholders
Bernard Nkuyubwatsi
PhD Candidate, University of Leicester
Email: nkuyubwatsi1[at]gmail.com
5th GO-GN Seminar, 10-11 April 2016, Kraków, Poland

2. About this presentation
• Problem statement
• Research questions
• Study design
• Analysis
• Results
• Transformative outcomes beyond research results
• Post viva amendments
• Conclusion

3. Problem Statement
Shortage funds for pub high ed Shortage funds for student loans
Photo: National Institute of Rwanda (2014, p. 49): CC
BY
From 7 to 1 public university in
2013
In 2014/2015, 42.7% of student admitted in
Public higher ed dropped out or suspended
because they were denied student loans

4. Research questions
1. Which MOOCs can potentially be adapted for
use in opening up Rwandan higher education?
2. Which OER units can potentially be adapted for
use in opening up Rwandan higher education?
3. What is the potential contribution of different
stakeholders in Rwandan higher education to
opening up this level of education?

5. Subsidiary research question for RQ 3
• To what extent are learners willing to engage in self-
determined open learning?
• To what extent are academics at the University of Rwanda
willing to contribute to OER and open courses, and adopt
open education roles?
• To what extent are the University of Rwanda’s leaders and
policy makers willing to develop an institutional open
education policy and strategy that recognise academics’ open
educational practices/roles and credibly certify competencies
developed via self-determined open learning?

6. Research Design

7. Analysis

8. Phase 1 Results

9. Findings on MOOCs across 6 analytical category

10. Potential contribution of MOOCs

11. Reading resources in the MIT OCW OER units

12. Openness in OER Units
Challenge of World Poverty: 22 videos & their
transcripts released under CC BY-NC-SA

13. Phase 2 results

14. Learner’s willingness to engage in self-
determined open learning practices

15. Condition for such engagement

16. Academics willingness to contribute to OER

17. Conditions to engage in different OEP

18. Policy makers/leaders’ willingness to support
assessment of open learning for credit and recognise
academics’ OEP
• Not identified in interview and policy documents analysed:
• Existing regulation for open and distance education
programme: Mostly copied from the regulations for
conventional education
• Some of these policies are decontextualised:
The University of Rwanda (2014, pp. 37)

19. Beyond research

20. 1. National policy on open, distance and eLearning
Screenshots taken and used with the tweet author’s permission

21. 2. From intention to drop out to a distinction

22. 3. From a pass grade to a first class
• From secondary education completion with a pass
grade to undergraduate education completion with
a first class
 Credentials voluntarily shared for authenticity
verification

23. Post viva amendments
In the light of a framework for opening up higher ed. collaboratively
Nkuyubwatsi (2015); Nkuyubwatsi et al. (2015)

24. Summary: Research
• 2 MOOCs were found to have the potential to be
adapted for use in opening up higher education
• 1 OER unit was found to have the potential to be
adapted for use in opening up higher education
• Learners were willing to engage in different self-
determined open learning practices
• Academics were willing to engage in different OEP
• No willingness to support assessment of open learning
practices for credit or recognise academics OEP could be
identified.

25. Summary: Parallel Development
• A policy on Open, Distance and eLearning
• A move from intention to dropout to
completing an online programme with a
distinction
• A move from a secondary education
completion with a pass grade to
undergraduate education completion with a
first class.

26. References
Creswell, W.J. (2014) Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th edn).
Los Angeles: Sage.
Nkuyubwatsi, B. (2015) Fostering collaborative investment in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), in
Jansen, D. & Teixeira, A. (eds), Position Papers for European Cooperation on MOOCs: Overview of
Position Papers on the Opportunities and Characteristics for European Cooperation as Presented During
the HOME Conference in Porto November 2014, pp. 44-57. Available from
http://home.eadtu.eu/images/Position_papers_for_European_cooperation_on_MOOCs.pdf (last accessed 11
April 2016).
Nkuyubwatsi, B. (2016) Positioning extension Massive Open Online Courses (xMOOCs) within the open
access and the lifelong learning agendas in a developing setting, The Journal of Learning for Development,
Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 14-36. Available from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d (last accessed 11 April 2016).
Nkuyubwatsi, B., Ndayishimiye, V., Ntirenganya, B.J., Umwungerimwiza, D.Y. (2015) Towards innovation
in digital and open scholarship for non-rivalrous lifelong learning and supporting open learning: The case of
the Open Scholars Network, eLearning Papers, Issue 44, pp. 53-59. Available from
http://openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/teacher-s-role-educational-innovation (last accessed 11 April 2016).
The University of Rwanda (2014c) Policy and procedures on academic staff appointments and promotions.
Available from
http://cbe.ur.ac.rw/images/pdf/policy/Revised_Policy_and_Procedures_on_Academic_Staff_Appointments_
and_Promotions.pdf (last accessed 11 April 2016).

27. Thank you!