By Lilian Rondo

United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) continues to make bold strides in reimagining online education with the successful hosting of the Content Development Workshop for Online Programs– Cohort 5, held from July 8 - 11, in Maanzoni Lodge, Machakos County.

The four-day intensive residential workshop brought together nearly 54 participants including, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Instructional Designers (IDs), e-Learning Technologists, Multimedia Specialists, Facilitators, and Graduate Associates, under the guidance of the Director, e-Learning Initiative and the Director of USIU-Africa Online. The event was a continuation of USIU-Africa’s strategic vision to build a robust, high-quality, and inclusive online education ecosystem.

In her address, Madam Everlyn Anyal, Director, e-Learning Initiative, celebrated the impressive progress of e-Learning Workstream B, noting that over 160 faculty members have been trained on the Masterclass for Teaching Online and over 130 faculty members have done Quality Matters (QM) courses such as Design Your Online Course (DYOC), Improve Your Online Course (IYOC), and others. She also highlighted that seven (7) online programs have already been launched, attracting nearly 300 online students. Moreover, the ongoing establishment of a state-of-the-art e-Learning Resource Center has sparked interest from institutions looking to benchmark with USIU-Africa. She concluded by expressing appreciation for the support from the Mastercard Foundation and looked forward to the university doing more to maintain the leading role it has taken in digital learning in the country and region.

The Director of USIU-Africa Online, Dr. Phillip Machoka, reflected on the university’s rapid digital transition following the COVID-19 pandemic. He underscored the evolution from emergency remote teaching to structured training in Pedagogy, Instructional Design, and more recently, Universal Design for Learning (UDL). He proudly shared the success of the Online MBA flagship program, which has already enrolled over 200 students, and reaffirmed the university’s commitment to inclusive and accessible online education.

The workshop focused on online pedagogy and course design fundamentals, Open Educational Resources (OERs), including open textbook libraries and institutional resources such as Elgar, Taylor & Francis, and the Africa Portal, practical sessions with tools including the Workload Estimator and Time-on-Task calculation, SMEs and IDs Course Mapping collaboration to build course maps and collect assets for up to week 14, and uploading Course Assets onto the Assets Collection Folder and the Learning Management System (LMS)

In his closing remarks, Dr. Philip Machoka emphasized the importance of continued collaboration beyond the workshop. He urged SMEs to seek guidance from experienced peers and to remain committed.

The success of Cohort 5 is a testament to USIU-Africa’s unwavering dedication to quality, accessible, inclusive, and innovative education. As the university expands its digital learning footprint, the impact of such workshops will be far-reaching—equipping faculty and staff with the tools to deliver high quality online education and preparing students to thrive in a globally connected world.