eLearning for Renewable Energy Higher Education in Africa: Role, Potential and Outlook

Summary: Renewable energy holds a great potential to affordably mitigate climate change and enhance energy security in Africa. Beyond this potential, for individual renewable energy market segments to prosper, available human resources in Africa are needed. There is an urgent need of individuals who have been trained to plan, operate and maintain renewable energy installations, and design policy frameworks that promote renewable energy technologies. At the same time, distance education approaches promise to be low cost and high impact opportunities for university education. By complementing existing master and post-graduate distance learning courses, human and financial resources can be shared among universities to ensure advanced and innovative teaching methods and knowledge for students to successfully enter the job market. To promote the potential of eLearning for renewable energy higher education in Africa and to identify possible projects advancing this field, the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) jointly carried out a study, focusing on the role of educational technology and its potential to enhance and strengthen higher education in the field of renewable energy market segments in Africa. This study is targeted at higher education lecturers and stakeholders seeking to use eLearning technologies to enhance their renewable energy education, as well as international organisations involved in renewable energy education and training in Africa. The study elaborates on the activities and impact from well-established organisations involved in eLearning in Africa with a special focus on renewable energy education. It is the first study to provide an extensive overview over face-to-face and eLearning programmes and curricula for renewable energy in Africa and Europe. It also reveals an existing, however not sufficient awareness for the usage of educational technologies in African higher education. Moreover, it summarises learning technologies, which could be used to transform a didactical traditional face-to-face curriculum into a (blended) eLearning programme or curriculum for renewable energy studies. The study provides an interesting outlook and recommendations to strengthen eLearning for renewable energy higher education in Africa.