Thanks to our presenters Jerome Dooga from University of Jos and Peter Aborisade from Federal University of Technology, Akure who provided a very accessible and useful introduction to blended learning in the form of a narrated presentation and shared their own practices in the discussions and live meetings. Sixty registered users logged in to our site and 27 posted at some point in the live site forums. Fourteen seminar participants posted in the e/merge Africa Facebook group. A total of thirteen took part in the two live meetings on October 23rd and 24th respectively with the most participation being on the 24th.

Topics discussed included experiences of how technology can support learning, choosing technologies appropriate for African contexts, the use of social media and mobile technologies, flipped classrooms and learner ownership of the learning process. The blend was adjusted to respond to challenges experienced by our presenters including an ongoing lecturer strike, power cuts and high latency connections so the live meetings relied quite heavily on text chat.

Some quotes from the seminar included:

• ” I am thinking rather “technologies for teachers, and learners, and subjects, and contexts … and so on …”. It is MUCH more complicated that we tend to assume” Andy
• ” Maybe we should be strengthening our traditions of exploring a variety of resources and using multiple modes of presentation, while we worry less about students coming to class or not” Lennox
• “Putting students in a class with a lecturer does not mean that teaching and learning is taking place”. (Penny)
• “Flip not only the classroom, but roles as well” (Peter)
• “There are many ways of killing a rat: If one medium fails you, try another “(Jerome)

Dear colleagues,

It gives us great pleasure to announce an online seminar entitled “Designing Blended Courses for Low Resource Contexts: Will They Still Come to Class?” which will run from 22nd October to 24th October. Our presenters are Jerome Terpase Dooga (University of Jos, Nigeria) and Peter Aborisade (Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria). Peter and Jerome will share a short presentation to stimulate discussion. During these three days of the seminar, Peter and Jerome will lead online discussion and a live online meeting giving a great opportunity to share experience and insight, ask questions and interact. We are currently conducting maintenance and upgrades of the emergeafrica.net/live site in preparation for this event. The e/merge Africa Facebook group will also feature as a place for vibrant conversation during the seminar.