Eight (8) researchers from public and private universities namely University of Nairobi, Maseno University, The Cooperative University of Kenya, Machakos University and African Nazarene University benefitted from the KENET travel grants to attend the Distance Education and Teachers’ Training in Africa Conference. The DETA Conference is an Africa-specific biennial conference initiated by the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 2005 and was borne out of the necessity to create a unique platform for all faculties of education to share knowledge and deliberate on educational issues as they affect Africa. DETA’s major objectives are to contribute to the debate on teacher training in Africa and to build capacity for the delivery of teacher training programmes in Africa.

                                                   Researchers at the DETA Conference

The faculty/researchers presented papers at the 2023 DETA Conference which was held between July 24-27^th 2023  and was hosted by the University of Pretoria and Saide in conjunction with Makerere University and Busitema University, Uganda and was themed “A Paradigm Shift towards Innovative Resilient and Transformative Teacher Education”. Speaking about his experience at the DETA Conference through the KENET Travel grant, Dr. Michael Ngala, Director, Institute of Open Distance and eLearning (IODeL) at The Co-operative University of Kenya talked about how he had acquired new pedagogical and andragogical skills for online teaching.

“I presented a paper titled “Strategies for enhancing adoption of new open, distance and eLearning technologies which contributed a lot in enhancing awareness of new technology acceptance and adoption strategies. The conference equipped me with insights, inspirations and powerful connections which will propel my expertise in managing ODeL Programmes.  I will use the knowledge acquired to sensitize lecturers on new pedagogies of teaching. I will also enhance support and sensitize students on effective online learning techniques,” noted Dr. Ngala

Through the DETA conference, the awardees got to network with other researchers in their fields of interest and to learn more about the transformation of digital learning in their respective institutions thus informing policies and discussions learning by key stakeholders in respective Higher Education Institutions. This is inline with KENET mission to promote and facilitate the digital transformation and digital inclusion of member institutions. This was further reiterated by Dr. Mildred Ayere, Director E-Campus, Maseno University who said, “DETA 2023 Conference was about a paradigm shift towards innovative, resilient and transformative teacher education where we reflected on the current practice and were made to think about how we can leverage on ICT to make learning easier, enjoyable and practical for the next generation of learners.”

Through the KENET travel grants faculty, researchers and graduate students present referenced conference papers and gain an international perspective enhancing their research experience and networking with professionals who have similar research interests and resulting in more meaningful and impactful results from the research conducted.

Grant Application can be made here