This presentation reports results of a recent open education research collaboration between The African Council for Distance Education and The Open University (UK). Pathways to Learning: new approaches in higher education (OpenLearn, 2020a) hosted two free professional development programmes for university lecturers, instructional designers, professional staff, and managers who share responsibility for providing quality distance and online learning.

• A Teacher Educator programme, Skills for 21st Century Learning and Teaching (OpenLearn, 2020b)
• A Tertiary Educator programme, Take Your Teaching Online (OpenLearn, 2020c)

The courses ran over six weeks between 13th July and 20th August, 2020, and was contextualized by a rapid rollout of online learning during the Coronavirus pandemic. The programmes combined a course of study using OER materials with supplementary activities including a total of 12 webinars and interactive events alongside use of new platforms created by The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology: nQuire (Herodotou et al., 2018) and Our Journey (Coughlan et al., 2019).

Key findings:

• The pandemic led to a substantial shift in teaching across Africa and a requirement to better understand and gain experience of online learning. Change is likely to persist post-pandemic, although infrastructure and cultural barriers are reported.
• The project surveys, interviews and the data generated through interactions that occurred in the programmes explores challenges and opportunities for online and blended learning across the African continent and globally.
• The evaluation data provides evidence that the programmes led to important understanding of course design and confidence in online facilitation for a large majority of those who took part in them.
• There is evidence that the programmes built confidence, particularly through the experiences of these educators themselves learning online with well-designed materials, and engaging with platforms and experts.
• There is evidence that each of the elements and activities were appreciated by some learners. The open courses were seen as most useful alongside some webinars. Community events and forums added substantial value to these.
• The flexibility offered in the programmes led to different behaviours. Many aimed to complete all the available activities despite time pressures and other barriers. Some were unable to attend live events so recordings were appreciated.
• Given the courses were free to join and many educators faced barriers and pressures, retention figures were very positive with around 66% of those who took part in the first week completing the rest of these programmes.
• Assessment, Open Educational Resources (OER), and understanding of technologies that can be used for online learning and learning design were areas that learners reported as being particularly valuable.
• There is qualitative evidence of current and expected impact from the programmes on practices and strategies, particularly in interviews. Individuals felt greater confidence to push for change and integrate the concepts from the programmes (such as learning design or OER) as part of the shift to online and blended approaches. At the same time, barriers existed both in institutional cultures and in practical matters such as power, bandwidth, cost and time.