Final reflections on the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) Programme

What do you feel were the strengths of the AURA programme?

At the onset of the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme, Strathmore University administration was intent on getting a proof of concept on the most effective approach to nurture a critical mass of dynamic research-engaged faculty and students, and what approaches could inculcate a rich research culture that is responsive to the society. In general, the AURA programme did not last long enough for the University to draw on the lessons. However, the AURA programme created the momentum needed to refresh the University’s approach to interventions to improve teaching and research excellence among the staff.

In terms of practical implementation, the novelty of the AURA programme and what was unique included:

• Co-creation model: The overall design and implementation framework of the programme has elements and flexibilities that give room for the meaningful input from Strathmore. For example, the curriculum and design of the course is shared in advance for input by the Strathmore team. Our suggestions are taken seriously and acted upon. We are consulted frequently and think together on evolving aspects of the programme.
• Experiential model of facilitation: This has worked very well with the young scholars. They were effectively engaged meaningfully throughout the delivery of face to face interventions.
• Research Informed Implementation: It has been very helpful to have access to the data from the participants and to try and use these feedbacks in real time to guide programme implementation. This practice is also reflected in the design of the course and is very highly appreciated by the participants.
• Creative Commons License: This is a great way to promote free access to resources generated during the implementation. It is a great boost to the programme.
• Strengthened individual research capacities of the staff participants. These include positive results from participating in scholarly conferences, progress in the individual academic research projects by the participants and even in less tangible outputs such as refreshment of theoretical grasp of research methodologies (in AURA Research #1-2 [R1] and [R2] interventions).
• Strengthened individual research capacities of the Project Coordinators: The demands of the programme, particularly the publishing of reflective blog articles was a great opportunity to improve the skills among the PCs.

How do you feel the AURA programme could have been improved?

1. Deliberately focus on an outcome driven implementation: The benefits of the programme in refreshing the skill sets of the participants in teaching excellence and research capacity was great. However, it would have been more productive to design the programme purposely to achieve, in a progressive manner, tangible results in teaching and research, for example journal publications, etc. this requires reflection and an extensive multi-level design.
2. Deliberately involve students as participants: Our experience in the involvement of undergraduate students in the Writer’s podium under the AURA Research Course 4 [R4] was very positive.
3. The consortium should have comprised at least one university from the South. The role of ITOCA complicated the decision-making processes. In our opinion, it did not bring what we expected it to do. Maybe a leading university on the topic of the project would have been a better option.
4. Leveraging in on functional linkages: The programme should pursue the possibility of leveraging in more resources from other partners to increase the effectiveness of interventions. For example mentoring of participants could get a shot in the arm from AuthorAID. Participants could also benefit from a competitive small grants programme, or travel grants from other sources, open to young scholars and students.
5. Deliberately focus on continuity: The programme will come to an end. Although institutionalisation efforts may achieve a certain measure, largely there could be missed opportunities if the programme does not deliberately work on exploring other platforms to continue engaging even on a higher plane to keep the tide and momentum high. This, for example, includes actively exploring more grant opportunities to leverage on the winning aspects of achievement and take them to a new level.
6. Create more opportunities for participants from implementing institutions to learn from one another: it could probably help to explore the possibility of having participants from the implementing institutions to attend some sessions together. It is critical to explore outcome driven learning opportunities for ALIRT team members from implementing partner institutions from the consortium institutions in specific areas. Explore opportunities for interactions between young scholars in the consortium institutions and implementing institutions could improve growth in personal trajectories of the participants.
7. Publish and disseminate results of this AURA intervention to wider audiences: There should be a deliberate design in the second year to broadly disseminate outcomes, including to the audiences in the implementing institutions.

What would you like to see from future programmes in this area of work?

The general technical design of the programme is very well thought out. The model at the consortium level accommodates a north-south partnership to deliver the programme. The implementing partners are a mix of public and private academic institutions, at the moment concentrated in eastern Africa. This design has impacted on the programme delivery as follows: administrative and financial management was governed by unclear procedures and demands. This made the life of PCs very frustrating in compliance. Better communication on this would have been helpful in managing expectations on both sides of the engagement.

Stephen Ng’ang’a and Cavin Opiyo are based at Strathmore University Business School, Strathmore University, Kenya.

Fostering Competencies in Research through Project-based Learning

R2 Highpoints
Photo: Emma Greengrass/IDS.

The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), through the AURA programme, recently conducted the Research 2 (R2) workshop focusing on strengthening the capacity of conducting research among MUHAS academic staff. The R2 workshop was conducted over a six week period from February to March 2016. It adopted project based learning approaches and blended learning approaches which included pre-online, face to face, and post-online learning activities. The teaching modality was participatory, and focused on independent learning, learning from instructors, and peer to peer learning and assessment. Some of the topics were completely new to participants (i.e. social network analysis, mixed methods) while other topics were familiar to faculty, such as topics on comparative and surveys research designs. Given their medical science backgrounds, MUHAS faculty members were not aware of some of the social research methods offered and were able to learn and appreciate these through R2.  They also learnt and appreciated the application of qualitative research approaches, and how they can combine both qualitative and quantitative research approaches in their practice.

Participants were also able to refine their individual research methodology, and gained practical knowledge on how to apply mixed research methods, especially sequential mixed methods. This kind of training was very important and also timely given the fact that MUHAS is currently implementing competency based curricular. Furthermore, participants were able to develop a group proposal, which was multidisciplinary in nature, to compete for funding. Through the group work, participants appreciated the fact that they were able to learn from their colleagues and to share what they knew regarding the topic they were working on. Participants were also able to expand their network of researchers to work with, through the task that of writing proposals as a multidisciplinary group.

In conclusion, the R2 workshop enabled participants to acquire useful skills on how to develop competitive proposals for grant application, various study designs, and to learn the advantages of working in multidisciplinary research groups. Participants also appreciated the teaching methodology and it is expected that they will adopt this modality into their teaching, especially the use of project based learning.

Dr. Doreen Mloka is a Medical Microbiologist/Molecular biologist. She is a Medical Education Fellow and the Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania. She currently coordinates two medical education projects and several microbiology projects.

The Benefit of Flexibility in Keeping the AURA Programme Vibrant

There are two levels at which flexibility has contributed to making the African Universities' Research Approaches(AURA) programme become vibrant: the level of participants’ engagement; and the level of institutional collaboration - and this vibrancy has developed in spite of a number of challenges encountered in the initial programme conception as experienced at Strathmore University (which we have written about in a previous blog post). 

Participants’ engagement

Participants who have showed an interest in this programme have been encouraged to retain their interest, and engagement, in the activities through flexible arrangements. For example, as Project Cordinators (PCs) for AURA, we negotiated new deadlines for completing the diagnostics, and made sure that polite reminders to participants went out regularly.

The management of email communication has also been a key challenge, and an important point of learning for us as programme coordinators. A significant number of participants suffered from email overload and started to drop out of the programme on account of repetitive communication from different contacts in the programme.   As PCs, we took a proactive approach to ensure that the issues experienced with email overload were communicated within the programme, and we then agreed a communication strategy which was more appropriate to the needs arising within our institution.  This is now working adequately for us.  

Institutional collaboration

At the level of institutional collaboration, the true spirit of co-creation around content, and the authenticity in which inputs from implementing institutions are accepted, has helped to build trust within the partnership – an essential part of the process. This is demonstrated by the on-going consultation between us as Project Coordinators (PCs), and champions, for the AURA programme at Strathmore University and the lead contacts within the AURA consortium and this on-going consultation makes it much easier to resolve issues and maintain momentum within the programme.

Lessons learned

The benefit drawn from these experiences is that it is critical to be sensitive to the varying needs and interests of participants and try to accommodate this in programme implementation and management. This can mean changing procedures so that these meet institutional needs, or negotiating a deadline where this is necessary.

The AURA programme is developing good flexibility to accommodate a participant-centred approach in meeting challenges as they arise.  It is this approach that enables us as PCs to maintain momentum for the programme internally.  This approach also supports programme responsiveness at both the AURA consortium level and institutionally at Strathmore University.

Stephen Ng’ang’a and Cavin Opiyo are based at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Early Experiences in Engagements around the AURA Programme

Strathmore University, a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), accepted an invitation to participate in their Structured Training for African Researchers (STARS)programme. This took place in August 2015 when Strathmore was already in advanced engagements with the Consortium to implement AURA programme.

Structured Training for African Researchers (STARS) programme

The STARS project is an online professional skills course implemented collaboratively with African universities to develop and refine professional development for academic staff early in their careers. The project aims to institutionalize and embed early career support and build the skills and confidence of early career academics. The resources in the programme are collaboratively developed and are openly licensed under a creative commons license so that universities can adapt and embed the material within their own professional development offerings.

The programme was designed in a three year cycle. The first year involved the design of online content for training early career researchers. The second year involved piloting the online course in twelve universities. The third year involved implementation of the course with additional universities. This is the point at which Strathmore joined into the programme.

Similarities and differences between STARS and AURA programmes

The major similarities are that both programmes are focused on research capacity building among a more or less similar target group. The key differences are that STARS is already at an advanced stage of implementation while the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme is still in its first year. The key distinction in design and outcome between the two programmes is evident in the implementation.

At the point of recruitment, faculty were presented with details concerning the objectives and the implementation format of the two programmes. It appeared that the majority of the young scholars and early career researchers opted into the STARS programme, partly due to the perception that the amount of commitment was shorter and less intense than the AURA. However, early feedback shows that those in the AURA are making significant and demonstrable transformation in their research undertakings.

This experience highlights the importance of taking a strategic institutional view and developing a strong implementing capacity when taking on board similar programmes to avoid failure or collapse.

This experience provides an opportunity to learn and to better scrutinise future engagements against institutional capacity and goals

Engaging in both AURA and STARS provided Strathmore with an opportunity to explore how to position both programmes in the context of institutional goals.  We also had an opportunity to provide staff with a choice to enrol in either programme. The model of co-creation in the AURA Programme required creativity on the part of the champions in order to persuade staff to sign up for AURA especially because the STARS programme presented a perception of lighter work load commitment as compared to the AURA programme. 

Final reflections

Whilst it may appear that competition between the two programmes could pose challenges in maximising the benefits, this was not the view we took at Strathmore. Since there is an intended end in both programmes to empower the institutions involved to deliver and implement internally driven and sustainable capacity building programmes that will bring research outputs to a new level, having the two programmes provides our institution with an opportunity to complement the lessons learned from both programmes. Furthermore, Strathmore has taken an active step to harmonise the benefits by concentrating the programme management under a collaborative approach between the Research and Teaching departments to avoid scattering and duplicating efforts.  This would be a key recommendation for other institutions that when an institution is involved in two programmes that are addressing similar areas, or include synergies, then it is very important that the programme management is shared collaboratively between departments in order to avoid a silo mentality, to ensure that the programmes complement each other, and to prevent duplication.   

Stephen Ng’ang’a and Cavin Opiyo are based at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.

When E-learning is Not Like a Duck to Water

Photo:  creisi,  Pixabay

Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain License

The advancements of information and communication technologies have enhanced teaching and learning practices across the globe including Africa. Through the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) is also now using these technologies to deliver its teaching and research intervention training programmes to faculty members and students. However, the main question remains whether MUHAS researchers and students are prepared to fully embrace these technologies to enhance their teaching and learning and research practices amidst the multiple challenges they face?

Research One (R1) Learning Intervention

Through the AURA programme from September to October 2015, MUHAS rolled out AURA's Research One (R1) learning intervention.  This involved a pre-online session, a face to face session and a post-online session.  Research One (R1) was followed by an online regional event on the “Future of research in the 21st Century” organized from 2-4th November 2015.  

A high participant attrition rate was observed during the online training sessions mainly because participants were instructed to join the training individually in their offices. Most participants did not know how to use the e-learning platform due to lack of skills and also due to their mind-set towards online e-learning systems.

This observation may not be so surprising as many African universities, including MUHAS, face a number of challenges related to use of e-learning platforms including: frequent power outages,  the lack of the online learning culture, the mind-set of teacher-centred  (versus student-centred) on the part of many of the senior faculty, as well as lack of ICT skills, unreliable internet services and many other challenges. 

The low level of attendance of participants to the online training sessions at MUHAS calls for a need to build the capacity of faculty members and to cultivate a culture of online learning  within our institutions. However, as short term measure, this experience forced the MUHAS project coordinators and ALIRT teams to find a temporary solution to avert this situation. This short term measure included facilitating the online learning sessions collectively in a single room until participants were comfortable with attending online training individually in their offices.  

This solution however had cost implications in that MUHAS would need to have some equipment to conduct online learning to researchers collectively - headphones with speakers for each participant, - in order for them to fully participate in the AURA programme online activities.

Conclusion

The key lesson learnt from this experience is that before one adopts new technologies and strategies,   you will need to prepare and assess end users in terms of  their  competence or attitudes. Mitigate these deficiencies early on to ensure achievement of project objectives.

Dr. Doreen Mloka is a Medical Microbiologist/Molecular biologist. She is a Medical Education Fellow and the Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania and co-coordinates the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS).

Professor Lwoga holds a PhD in information studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She teaches and supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has facilitated a number of workshops and short courses.  She has published widely and has presented over 30 research papers in both international and local conferences.  Professor Lwoga currently co-coordinates the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania, together with an additional four projects working with international partners in Sweden, South Africa and USA.

AURA e-Newsletter Issue 1, January 2016

The African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) Programme is pleased to announce a monthly e-Newsletter. Catch up on  all the latest information and updates concerning our work. Also get more information on how to access all our online learning resources.



What to expect in Issue 1:

• News on the AURA Research One (R1) Intervention - the first of the research capacity interventions (focusing on research philosophy, epistemology and research orientations) which 
  was took place at Strathmore University and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) during September to November 2015.
• Information about AURA Research Two (R2) Intervention - the second of the research courses; this one focuses on researcher-led (analytical) research methods.
• An update on the Researchers of the future, Regional Learning Event which took place online in November 2015.
• Highlights of the Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN) December 2015, where AURA was represented in Ethiopia.

Also the e-newsletter will give you more information about AURA's learning management system where you can find a variety of resources including lesson plans, videos, presentations and handouts.

Download a printable version

Sign up to receive the AURA monthly e-newsletter.

"Many cooks may not spoil the broth but may enhance it": A multidisciplinary approach to education

Photo:  Vocalcoach, Pixabay

Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain License

Adopting and modifying the best practices of  teaching and learning may be the key to fostering innovation in teaching and learning.  The concept of borrowing innovative experiential and interactive teaching and learning methods from unrelated disciplines may be a novel strategy to ensure that graduates acquire the competencies they require.

This novel approach was this year's Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN) 5th Conference theme. The conference created a platform for professionals from a multitude of unrelated disciplines to learn and share experiences of  best practices of teaching and  learning that foster development of  competencies in graduates.  Educators got the opportunity to learn from each other's discipline in such a way that it facilitated the establishment of collaborative multi-disciplinary networks and groups dedicated to enhance teaching across unrelated disciplines.

As educators, we view this approach as an inevitable extension of the global trend of fostering collaborative multidisciplinary research from seemly unrelated disciplines. As educators we have forgotten that good research comes from acquiring good research skills.  Adopting the GKEN model will not only increase  the  number of educational methods available to us, but also the opportunity to develop better educational methods through interdisciplinary collaboration. 

In our view that is the future of educational innovation, in ensuring we have the best teaching methods to impart the professional competencies required.

Professor Lwoga holds a PhD in information studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She teaches and supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has facilitated a number of workshops and short courses.  She has published widely and has presented over 30 research papers in both international and local conferences.  Professor Lwoga currently coordinates the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme at MuhimbiliUniversity of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania, together with an additional four projects working with international partners in Sweden, South Africa and USA.

Dr. Doreen Mloka is a Medical Microbiologist/Molecular biologist. She is a Medical Education Fellow and the Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania.

AURA developing a framework for strengthening a research culture

The African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme completed its first research capacity intervention, earlier this year in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam working with African universities to enable faculty to do more research and develop researchers of the future.

Photo:  StockSnap-894430, Pixabay

Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain License

How the study of people's information behaviour informs the programme

The AURA programme's strategy draws on the study of people's information behaviour. In particular the assumption that information behaviour is intrinsically related to how we navigate and at the same time co-construct our experience. This shared experience, although open to interpretation, is reflected in our thoughts and informed and communicated through our actions including speech, writing, the creation and use of images, and with an array of technologies. The 'experience' that is the focus of the AURA programme is our learning experience, in particular that learning experience associated with conducting an inquiry into a particular topic or problem, i.e. conducting research and becoming informed.

As a consequence the project draws on theories of people's information behaviour that explores and documents the factors that influence and drive information behaviour, some generic some context specific. The sub-domain, information literacy, i.e. concentrating on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural capabilities relating to being informed; where people identify their information needs and appreciate and effectively utilise their socio-technical environment that can enable them to become informed or may be used to manage or communicate their 'research' i.e. the product of 'finding out' and learning.

Drawing on current approaches within higher education and research

The AURA programme also draws on a knowledge of current approaches to become informed within, on the whole, higher education and research environments.  These include an overview of the ontological, epistemological orientations and approaches that are taken. These include the broad ontological distinction between Cartesian and non-Cartesian and broad epistemological viewpoints within the post positivism or interpretivist paradigms such as social constructivism or critical realism or phenomenology.

Furthermore the distinction between citizen-led, highly participative or researcher-led forms of research (which are associated with distinct epistemological orientations) are highlighted.

The theoretical is however grounded in relation to the practice of conducting research and the process of developing research questions that will lead to funding from donors and research sponsors as well as getting published in respected publications plus ensuring that research is communicated effectively and has impact.  Hence, mapping the researchers network and identifying stakeholders (other academics, policy makers, publishers, international organisations etc.) and also mapping the knowledge, information and data landscape is seen as fundamental. The academic's research is therefore seen as integral to the wider socio-economic-technological context. Thus the research has to be contextualised and justified in terms of potential impact on society as well as to be clear about the academic contribution the research makes. In fact successful research is likely to stem from this contextualisation process. Without this contextualisation process, research is less likely to succeed or be seen to contribute.

Using pedagogical theory and practice to enable learners to engage with interventions

Another key component of the AURA programme is pedagogy. Pedagogy is the theory and practice of enabling learning and education. It is therefore intrinsic in that it enables us to implement interventions that are based on strong pedagogic theory and will enable learners to engage with the subject i.e. research and how to go about research. The current teaching of research, although there are examples of excellent practice, in many cases the learners do not engage and benefit little from research methods courses. Plus they tend to be patchy in their coverage. In the past the teaching of research has tended to take a teacher-centred approach rather than participative and experiential. It also tends have taken on board to a limited extent recent developments, for example, the importance placed on participative research or the blurring between quantitative and qualitative data or the increased emphasis on holistic/systemic approaches in addition to the more traditional analytical approaches. These changes are related to an increased appreciation of the complexity of many problems that we face and that need to be tackled from a multi-disciplinary, mixed methodological perspective.

Furthermore drawing on current knowledge about pedagogy enables the modelling of methods and techniques that can be applied in the universities and the learning stemming from AURA to be cascaded and institutionalised. It also enables current practices to be adopted such as reflective practice or the use of social media or blended learning which draws on different modalities of delivery and learning.

Concluding reflections

Strengthening research capacity within an institution is however challenging. There are organisational factors that impinge on the project. These include their: history, culture, goals, organisation and infrastructure. One key challenge is the large numbers of students and the shortage of staff. A host of different players operate in this context: faculty/researchers, students, the research office, the library, continuing professional development, the graduate school, deputy vice chancellors of research and teaching, the ICT providers. Each play a role and have an interest in certain aspects of the 'problem' i.e. strengthening the research culture and the capacity to do research. As a consequence AURA has involved representatives from these groups in each African university. They form the core group of partners and co-developers.

 This blog post was originally shared by Professor Mark Hepworth on LinkedIn.

Dr Mark Hepworth is Professor in People’s Information Behaviour, at the Centre for Information Management at Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK. He champions access to information for underrepresented groups in society, is passionate about research philosophy and methodology and about strengthening people’s capacity to conduct research in educational, workplace and community based contexts. He specialises in participative, qualitative research.

Read more at Mark Hepworth's Blog and on Twitter: @kampalamark.