Abstract:
The demand for monitoring and evaluation capacity in Africa sharply exceeds
the supply. This has increased pressure on universities to produce the needed
quality of M&E experts. While some commendable progress has been made,
significant gaps remain in the way of any efforts to produce the needed human
resources with expertise, competencies, skills and tools in the field. The number
of teachers for M&E has remained glaringly weak and the resources within
universities remain poor. Many universities have introduced curricula in the
field but they have remained stuck to the traditional ways of delivering these
curricula. The traditional way entails students being full-time at universities and
rarely has there been adoption of ICT opportunities. Indeed, the graduates that
have been produced remain stunted in the use of ICT for addressing some of
the field’s solutions. To address this problem, we propose a blended-learning
approach to the teaching of M&E in Africa. With the blended approach, students
across a variety of disciplines, faculties, countries and levels can study in the same
classroom environment. The UTAMU e-learning model is advanced to provide a
justification for this approach.
