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Author(s): Sheriff Ghali Ibrahim, Aliyu Isa Mohammed.

Volume/Issue: Volume 2 , Issue 2 (2019)

Abstract:

The inability of conventional educational institutions to provide full and adequate education world over, had led to the adoption of the Distance Learning and Open Education system. The platform has received a great level of acceptance by the third world states especially Africa in their efforts to balance the educational deficits of her teaming population and over the years, the system had undergone series of reform either at the national level or at the continental level, even though on a low level or speed. The paper seeks to investigate the current trends in the operation and delivery of educational services through the Distance and Open learning mechanism in Africa to enable us evaluate it impact on the learning itself as well as sustainable development. Trends in the practice of Open and Distance Learning in Africa at the continental level and in countries particularly Nigeria and Tanzania are critically discussed. Using the library and descriptive research, findings show that the current trends in the services of Distance and Open Education provide a shift in the strategies of instructions, which are not unconnected to the rapid phenomenal developments in the world of electronic networks, especially the recent global attention to the internet, which has provided the primary technological thrust. The paper concludes that the directions or trends which distance education will take in the future, depends on such factors as the development of new media and computing technologies, the methods of group learning and information gathering and the development of government telecommunication policies. The paper recommends that there is the need to invest more in Open and Distance Learning through meaningful budgetary allocations and the Africanization of the curriculum for effective response to peculiar African challenges, among other things.

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