Strategic plan for distance education at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS)

sofos
consultancy
Client: consulting on management and ict
Carribean Universities Project for Integrated m p.o. box 94874, 1090 gw amsterdam,
Distance Education the netherlands
v b. stokvisstraat 38, 1097 hz amsterdam,
Project Director: Stewart Marshall
the netherlands
Project Operations Manager: Christine Marrett t +31 (20) 694 12 22
Project Chairperson AdeKUS: Dennis Wip e pvdh@sofos.nl
w www.sofos.nl

Strategic Plan for Distance Education at
the Anton de Kom University of
Suriname

Final Version - 28 December 2005
Pieter van der Hijden MSc
Sofos Consultancy

e-government, e-learning, gaming/simulation, xml

CUPIDE / AdeKUS
Strategic Plan for Distance Education at the Anton de Kom University
of Suriname sofos consultancy

Preface
The Japanese fund-in-trust for capacity building funded the UNESCO/UWI project CUPIDE, the
Caribbean Project for Integrated Distance Education. The University of the West Indies (UWI), along
with the University of Guyana, the Anton de Kom University of Suriname, the University of
Technology (Jamaica), and the University Quisqueya (Haiti), are involved in this project.
CUPIDE aims at the development of the human resources within the region through enabling each
university to develop and deliver quality distance education programmes using Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs).
To date, two consultancies have been undertaken involving the five participating institutions: one to
recommend appropriate information technologies (IT) and the other to review the human resource and
programme needs (HR&PN) in the development of ICT-based distance education in the region.
In order to accomplish the strategic planning for three of the institutes involved, CUPIDE invited firms
or consultants to submit proposals for a strategic planning and implementation consultant. Sofos
Consultancy was one of them. It was selected for the assignment concerning the strategic planning for
the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS).
The objectives of this assignment were:
• to produce a strategic plan for AdeKUS for distance education involving the use of information
communication technologies, identifying the resources required for implementation, possible
barriers to implementation and suggested solutions to overcome the barriers, with an indicative
budget for the implementation of the plan,
• to assist AdeKUS to develop strategic planning capacities to effectively manage its resources to
provide distance education incorporating the use of ICTs,
• to be part of the larger CUPIDE project which implies enhanced cooperation with the institutes
involved.
The assignment started on 24 August 2005 with a telephone conference and ended on 23 December
2005 with the completion of two reports:
• Strategic Plan for Distance Education at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname,
• Final Report - Strategic Planning and Implementation Consultant for the Anton de Kom
University of Suriname.
The consultant wishes to thank the numerous persons at AdeKUS who contributed to this assignment,
especially the members of the ICT Steering Committee for their advise and support, the participants of
the Workgroup Education and the Workgroup Strategy for their enthusiasm and for the richness of
their ideas, and the crew of the University Computer Centre for their hospitality and daily support.
This is the first of both reports mentioned above: Strategic Plan for Distance Education at the Anton
de Kom University of Suriname.

Wanica, Suriname, 28 December 2005,
Pieter van der Hijden
Sofos Consultancy

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Summary
For distance education in which the learner is separated from the teacher, digital multimedia, the
Personal Computer, and the Internet offer a wealth of new opportunities.
The Suriname Ministry of Education and Community Development the use of ICT in education is a
tool to implement new didactical insights. For the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS),
distance education is a possible way to overcome the shortage of qualified staff by bringing them in
from abroad, via the Internet.
The Workgroup Strategy (university managers) and the Workgroup Education (university teachers)
participated each in three workshops on distance education. They constructed a AdeKUS vision of the
future (i.e. the year 2010), confronted that with a picture of current reality and derived an agenda for
change. This agenda contained various starting points for distance education:
• Distance education may attract new categories of students,
• Distance education may decrease the number of drop-outs,
• Distance education may increase the quality of education,
• Distance education may decrease the "brain drain" and "brain waste",
• Distance education is a "must" for a modern university.
The next step was the formulation of a AdeKUS distance education strategy:
• AdeKUS becomes a dual mode distance education university,
• AdeKUS sets central quality standards; the Faculties remain responsible for the course content,
• AdeKUS students get access to online resources, e.g. a virtual learning environment,
• AdeKUS chooses a systems approach to organise its core processes,
• AdeKUS participates in national community,
• AdeKUS participates in international community.
To implement this strategy during the coming five years, the following activities are recommended:
• establish a Distance Education Steering Committee (possibly together with other institutes),
supported by a small office (2 people),
• launch 25 online supported courses at the start of 2006/2007, increase this number annually and
support al courses online in 2009/2010, at least 10% of them may be followed completely via
distance education,
• also in 2006/2007 a pilot with a distance learning centre will be held, probably leading to a range
of such centres,
• a Community of Practice at national level will stimulate educational innovation, a.o. by organising
an annual conference on this theme,
• the Steering Committee will stimulate the participation in foreign conferences and will give grants
to innovative projects.
The estimated budget for these activities is USD 100.000 per year, during five years. Preconditions for
the successful implementation are: AdeKUS has a well-designed planning & control structure,
AdeKUS has a professional ICT-function, and AdeKUS has an Internet portal for publishing relevant
internal and external information and for connecting to other web-enabled applications.

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5
1.1 Distance Education........................................................................................................... 5
1.2 CUPIDE ........................................................................................................................... 6
1.2.1 IT-Consultancy.......................................................................................................... 6
1.2.2 HR&PN Consultancy ................................................................................................ 7
1.3 Objectives......................................................................................................................... 9
1.4 Methodology and Implementation ................................................................................... 9
1.4.1 Stakeholders .............................................................................................................. 9
1.4.2 Strategic Plan / Implementation Plan ........................................................................ 9
1.4.3 Developing Capacities............................................................................................. 10
1.4.4 Organisation ............................................................................................................ 11
2 Strategic Plan......................................................................................................................... 12
2.1 Suriname......................................................................................................................... 12
2.2 AdeKUS ......................................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Vision of the Future........................................................................................................ 14
2.4 Current Reality ............................................................................................................... 15
2.5 Agenda for Change......................................................................................................... 17
2.6 Distance Education Potential ......................................................................................... 19
2.7 Distance Education Strategy .......................................................................................... 20
3 Implementation Plan ............................................................................................................. 21
3.1 Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 21
3.1.1 AdeKUS 2010 ......................................................................................................... 21
3.1.2 Priorities Workgroup Strategy ................................................................................ 22
3.1.3 Priorities Workgroup Education.............................................................................. 23
3.2 Synthesis......................................................................................................................... 24
3.2.1 Possible Roadmap ................................................................................................... 24
3.2.2 Activities ................................................................................................................. 25
3.2.3 Preconditions........................................................................................................... 27
3.2.4 Budget ..................................................................................................................... 27
4 Conclusions & Recommendations ........................................................................................ 29
Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 30
Contributors.............................................................................................................................. 31
Resources ................................................................................................................................. 33
Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... 35

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1 Introduction
This chapter introduces modern distance education, the CUPIDE project, the objectives of the current
assignment, the methodology used and its implementation.

1.1 Distance Education
Distance Education can be defined as "an educational process in which the learner is separated from
the teacher for a substantive part of the learning time; in which face-to-face teaching is replaced
largely, or in extreme cases completely, by instruction through printed texts, or other media; and in
which provision is made for two-way communication, by face-to-face meetings, by written
correspondence, or by some form of mediated communication." [Curran, 1995]. This definition is
"technologically neutral". Today especially the "electronically enhanced" distance education is
growing all over the world.
Distance education has a rich history of more than 150 years. It started with so-called correspondence
courses that became available as soon as new railway systems enabled fast and secure postal services.
In a later period radio transmission was used too, followed by television, and, again, the postal
distribution of audio cassette tapes, video cassette tapes and their successors. In fact, synchronous
(simultaneous) and asynchronous (time-shift) media took turns. The modern multimedia Personal
Computer facilitated the use of interactive multimedia software distributed on diskette, CD-ROM, or
DVD. Dedicated telecommunication services made audio conferences and video conferences possible.
And now, the Internet can eliminate the need for physical distribution of materials, reduce the need for
dedicated equipment and software at the user side, and decrease transmission costs, while offering
both asynchronous and synchronous communication modes [Moore et al., 2005]. The only resources
needed by students are access devices (a multimedia PC with Internet browser software) and an
Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth. In many countries these resources still are scarce.
However, with constantly decreasing prices for PC's and for Internet connections worldwide, it is a
matter of time and this type of scarcity is over. The Internet offers to many educational institutes and
commercial educational publishers a wealth of new opportunities in the field of distance education. As
a contrast, the Internet also implies a threat: in fact any institute in the world can become a competitor
and attract the own students via Internet-based distance education.
Not only the technology changed over the years, the same happened with the reasons to implement
distance education. It started as a means to cross the geographical distance between learner and
teacher. It evolved as a vehicle to shift the time, appreciated by learners with other obligations during
the day. And now, distance education is entering the stage of just-in-time learning, the piecewise
offering of learning content at the moment and at the place it is needed.
Higher education institutes like the British Open University are offering distance education as a single
mode institute. It is their core business. Course production and course delivery are two more-or-less
separated business processes, organised in an industrial way. Large numbers of students can be
handled. Economies of scale apply and the production cost per unit per student can be low.
Conventional universities who are offering face-to-face education may sooner or later add distance
education to their offerings. These institutes are called dual mode institutes. The numbers of students
following a certain course via distance education may be relatively low. Economies of scale do not
apply. Nevertheless, there exist cost efficient strategies for small distance teaching universities
(<10,000 students) [Curran, 1995]. The following table lists some examples.

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Examples of Strategies

Cost Efficient Strategy for Small Distance Teaching University Strategy applied in Large Distance Teaching University

Use existing course materials from face-to-face course as the Start from scratch.
starting point for preparing distance education.

Use regular faculty or part-time staff (monitored by regular Have separate staff for course production and for course delivery
faculty) for assessments and tutoring. (tutoring).

Use PC and standard office software to prepare course materials. Use dedicated graphical work stations and software.

Use a specially equipped classroom for video production. Set-up your own tv studio for video production.

Use simple video-recording of lectures. Use scripting and rehearsing.

Apart from the single mode and dual mode universities, a third category is distinguished: the
consortium, in which different dual mode institutes cooperate, especially in course production, but
optionally in course delivery as well. The CUPIDE project may evolve into such a consortium.

1.2 CUPIDE
The Japanese fund-in-trust for capacity building funded the UNESCO/UWI project CUPIDE, the
Caribbean Project for Integrated Distance Education. The University of the West Indies (UWI), along
with the University of Guyana, the Anton de Kom University of Suriname, the University of
Technology (Jamaica), and the University Quisqueya (Haiti), are involved in this project.
CUPIDE aims at the development of the human resources within the region through enabling each of
the five participating universities to develop and deliver quality distance education programmes using
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The intended effects of these programmes are:
• The competitiveness of the region in general and the institutions in particular will be enhanced
• Participation in the knowledge society will increase – not only as users, but also as generators of
knowledge –
• Cost savings will be realised in the use of the technology for distribution of the course materials
and the teaching and administration of programmes
To date, two consultancies have been undertaken involving the five participating institutions: one to
recommend appropriate information technologies (IT) and the other to review the human resource and
programme needs (HR&PN) in the development of ICT-based distance education in the region. The
conclusions of these consultancies led to the current assignment.

1.2.1 IT-Consultancy
In January 2004 Ken Sylvester prepared for CUPIDE the "Final Report On Assessment of Institutional
Capacity and State of ICT Infrastructure at each Participating University With Recommendations of
an Integrated Network for connecting the five Participating Universities And Management
Framework, Skills, Competencies and Budget to Implement and Sustain Network Infrastructure For
The Delivery of Distance Education and Collaboration".
In general, his report recommended:
• Distance education be based on the Internet with a preference for asynchronous modes of course
delivery.
• The Internet be used as the network backbone for connecting the five universities.
• Two-way IP enabled VSAT terminals be provided to the five participating institutions including
the distance education centres of The University of the West Indies and The University of Guyana.
• A Satellite Service Provider be selected to provide a service to include the required space
segments and the supply and installation of the VSAT terminals to each institution.

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• Each institution be provided with a Learning Management System of their choice that conforms to
agreed international standards and within a specified price band.
• That a Web Portal be developed or purchased as a platform for collaboration between the
participating universities.
• Training is provided to each university in the use of the Learning Management System for
courseware development and delivery.
• A technical consultant be retained to work with each institution to assist in the development of
business plans for the delivery of distance education and facilitate the selection of ICT tools and
their implementation.
Concerning (a.o.) AdeKUS, the report noticed the absence of distance education practices as well as a
"documented plan or IT strategy for the delivery of distance education". It recommended "to develop
an ICT plan before beginning the implementation of project elements under CUPIDE", i.e. the current
assignment.

1.2.2 HR&PN Consultancy
In the period February-April 2004, Ron Nicholas prepared his "Report on the Distance Learning and
Online Education Programmes and Human Resource Development Requirements for Participating
CUPIDE Institutions".
The report notes that systematic collection of data failed due to low response. Conclusions have been
based on formal and informal interviews and desk research.
The report focused on four themes:
• Programmes
The report signalled that the participating universities shared a number of high priority needs:
• Providing accessible education to improve primary and secondary teachers, especially
secondary;
• Increasing the number of technology programmes available, and to strengthen the technology
content of most programmes;
• Supplementing any programmes with access to global alternatives; and
• Designing programmes that provide access to the greatest number of prospective students,
while preserving quality within the constraints of technology and available resources.
Underlying needs are:
• Assessing student needs and constraints;
• Redesigning course development processes;
• Increasing project management skills;
• Enhancing processes and mechanisms for continued program planning including mechanisms
for regional planning and collaboration.
• Learning Styles, Preferences, Modalities, Pedagogy and Distance Education Methods
The report stresses the need for informed decisions on learning and teaching models and
methods.
• Human Resource Professional Development
"Though the participating universities appear to have individuals with sufficient basic computer
technology skills, these same individuals are woefully lacking in knowledge about the
technologies, methods and related learning models for online distance education alternatives."

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The report identifies two levels of development: 1) comprehensive overview, and 2) focused on
specific (selected) technologies.
• Projects, Initiatives, and other Collaboration
According to the report, successful collaboration appears to be a critical issue. Opportunities
for collaboration are:
• CUPIDE / CARADOL Collaboration
• Collaboration beyond universities
• Technology collaboration
• Virtual university concept
The report presents a large number of (general) recommendations, summarised in a figure (see copy
below).

CUPIDE Recommendations Overview
Manage the Transformation Process and Enable Change

Overall Project Framework

Establish Projects & Teams for Planning Projects & Teams for Development and
Professional of Online & Distance Education Implementation of Online &
Development Plans Programmes Distance Education Programmes

Prof Dev Focused on Selected
Improve Project / Professional Development Individual
Technologies, methods, etc.
Change Management Overview of Online & Distance Professional
Utilise Targeted Capabilities in
Skills Ed Fundamentals Development Plans
Professional Development
Articulate Preferred Department
Assess Faculty Build Learning Style
Default Modality Modality Feasibility
& Staff Learning Measurement Into Distance
Style Preferences Department Review Communicate Plans
Admissions Process
of Learning Models & Strategies

Assess Student Pilot Development of Teacher Future Tech Content & Emphasis
Needs & Constraints Education Course Prototypes on Regional Development Needs
Assess Existing Baseline of Develop (Revise) Online & Continually Update Individual/
Programmes & Courses Distance Education Strategies Regional Plans & Strategies

Explore Collaboration Opportunities / Frameworks for Implementation Continuation

CUPIDE Target Technology Beyond CUPIDE Potential for Regional
Categories Opportunities for Access Virtual University

Regarding Suriname, the reports signals on the one hand a minimal level of experience with distance
education, on the other an interest level that is quite high:
• AdeKUS is looking at CUPIDE to learn from the experiences of others;
• One of the opportunities for distance education is building up the capacity and qualifications of
primary and secondary teachers, especially in the remote areas of the country's interior; at the
same time, the availability of Internet in remote areas could diminish the social isolation of
teachers from their relatives in the city.
• Another opportunity for distance education could be the mitigation of brain drain by providing
students opportunities to pursue education and advancement, as well as access to quality
programmes, without the necessity of living abroad.

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• Further, it is believed that many people from the "brain drain" population might appreciate
opportunities to stay connected and give back to their home countries.

1.3 Objectives
The current assignment builds on both CUPIDE consultancies. Its objectives are:
• to produce a strategic plan for AdeKUS for distance education involving the use of information
communication technologies, identifying the resources required for implementation, possible
barriers to implementation and suggested solutions to overcome the barriers, with an indicative
budget for the implementation of the plan,
• to assist AdeKUS to develop strategic planning capacities to effectively manage its resources to
provide distance education incorporating the use of ICTs,
• to be part of the larger CUPIDE project which implies enhanced cooperation with the institutes
involved.
During the assignment, the CUPIDE project operations manager advised to postpone the latter issue to
follow-up projects.

1.4 Methodology and Implementation
1.4.1 Stakeholders
A strategic plan for distance education involving the use of information & communication
technologies will have impact on almost every organisational unit of a university and almost every
member of its community. Therefore many stakeholders could be identified who all rightfully may
expect some role in the process of plan preparation. Just to mention a few: the University Board,
planning & control units, statistical office, any unit involved with forms of distance education so far,
educational professionals, ICT-service providers, the faculties and institutes (both from an
organisational point of view and from an educational point of view), the office for students affairs, the
office for study materials publication, the library, and last but not least the students (or even better: the
future students who will practise distance learning).
It would be impossible to involve all these stakeholders intensively in our plan preparation process.
Nevertheless, it was important to keep them informed and to show them the ways to have their voice
heard. We therefore proposed to publish regularly and quite informally via existing means what is
going on in this assignment. Preferably we could use ICT to publish and discuss the topic. This would
have the positive side effect of introducing people to new forms of electronic collaboration, one of the
corner stones of modern distance education. At a later moment, the university could organise a special
event like a university-wide conference to present the results.

Implementation
Unfortunately, AdeKUS does not have "existing means" of communication, nor electronically nor in
frequent print. As an alternative, we planned therefore the weekly publication of a news bulletin to be
sent to the local media. The first bulletin took three weeks to produce. It was copied in almost every
local newspaper, although it did not result in any reaction or sign of further interest. Despite of this
relative success, no new bulletins were produced. The benefits simply did not compensate for the
costs. As a consequence, the intended communication with a broad range of stakeholders was rather
limited. It has to be considered as a follow-up activity.

1.4.2 Strategic Plan / Implementation Plan
In many cases, innovation with ICT in educational institutes starts as a bottom-up process. Individual
teachers take the initiative to use their limited resources (time and sometimes money) to experiment
with ICT in a modest way. Although not guided by any institutional policy, these practices could be
very useful for the organisation as a whole. Close to the operational processes, these experiments

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create new knowledge and competencies, while their costs and risks are low. Sooner or later, a turning
point is reached. The institutional management gets involved. They take a position and guide the
further innovation with ICT. From then the innovation is a top-down process.
The Anton de Kom University of Suriname has the intention to go for ICT-supported distance
education in a top-down way. Although, certainly some teachers will have experimented already with
ICT in learning processes, the consultancies described above could not produce much significant
information on this topic. We assumed therefore that bottom-up innovation has not come to age yet.
This might hinder a top-down process in being fed by experiences from the work floor. Therefore, we
proposed to pay explicit attention to the bottom-up process as well.
Together with a strategy workgroup at university management level (5-15 persons) we planned to
develop the required strategic plan / implementation plan for distance education at AdeKUS. One of
the topics of these plans should be how to deal with initiatives and project ideas from Faculties and
Research Institutes.
Together with an educational practice workgroup of senior teachers (5-15 persons) from at least three
different Faculties or Research Institutes, we planned to go through an accelerated bottom-up process.
They will trace any in house e-learning experiments, study and experience a selection of e-learning
products and educational practices, and generate ideas for future projects. These project ideas will be
submitted to the strategy workgroup.
As said before, distance education has many stakeholders. Also many different disciplines are
involved: management, ICT, logistics, educational professionals, multimedia specialists, etceteras. We
did not propose to set up special groups for these specialists. However, when composing the two
workgroups we would especially look for members who could bring in these extra expertise as well.
We realised that it might be necessary to do some fact finding for which workgroups and workshops
were not the appropriate vehicle. In such cases, we planned to contact other specialists directly.

Implementation
The above approach of the planning process could be followed without major amendments. The
chapters "Strategic Plan" and "Implementation Plan" will present the results.

1.4.3 Developing Capacities
To develop strategic planning capacities is a matter of developing knowledge, experience and attitude.
Modern educational researchers stress that people learn these competencies most effectively and
efficiently in authentic learning situations, especially in a collaborative environment.
We proposed to offer these learning conditions in the form of a series of workshops, three for the
strategy workgroup and three for the educational practice workgroup. While offering a safe
environment for collaborative learning, both workgroups will gradually produce the desired outcomes.
Two measures could help to secure that the lessons learnt, will be used in the future. One was that the
workgroups would have their own local chairperson. In the end, colleagues will be longer available
than consultants. Of course, the consultant would support them in any possible way, and continued to
be responsible for the objectives of the assignment. The second measure was that all workshop
formats, exercises, management games etceteras entered by the consultant, would be freely available
for the AdeKUS for future re-use. The consultant planned to encourage the workgroups to repeat
(parts of) workshops in other contexts, e.g. within the faculties. Also a university wide conference on
distance education might be considered.

Implementation
The above approach of the capacity developing process has been followed. The consultant organised
six one-day workshops. To give the participants the experience of distance education, they had to do
some homework via a Virtual Learning Environment (i.e. Moodle) set-up for that occasion. This
AdeKUS-ELO (ELO being the Dutch acronym for Virtual Learning Environment) raised great

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enthusiasm in both workgroups. In the mean time all workshop documentation including the exercise
formats (for re-use) have been published via this ELO. Some participants indicated they were
interested to re-use it. Concrete plans are not known.
The Strategy Workgroup had a permanent local chairperson; unfortunately the other workgroup did
not. The members of the workgroups came from all three Faculties and from some of institutes and the
central units. From one faculty two student representatives participated in the Workgroup Education.
The results of the workshops themselves are used in the chapters on "Strategy" and "Implementation".
More details on the workshops can be found in "Final Report - Strategic Planning and Implementation
Consultant for the Anton de Kom University of Suriname".

1.4.4 Organisation
We proposed to set up a small Steering Committee for the assignment. We suggested it would be
chaired by a member of the University Board, preferably connected to CUPIDE as well, and have the
two chairpersons of the workgroups as its members. Extra members could be representatives of the
ICT department, the Library and the Office for Student Affairs. This Steering Committee was intended
to offer the consultant a platform to discuss and reflect his work, while it could secure the alignment
with other activities going on at the university.

Implementation
In fact, the existing ICT Steering Committee acted as the Steering Committee for the assignment.
Chairperson was Dennis Wip, member of the University Board and member of the CUPIDE Project
Advisory Team. He was chairperson of the Strategy Workgroup too. As the other workgroup did not
have a permanent chairperson, it was not represented in the Steering Committee. Although educational
expertise in the committee could be stronger represented, the Steering Committee offered to the
consultant a valuable platform for feedback and reflection.

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2 Strategic Plan
In this chapter we review shortly Suriname's educational policy and the actual policy of AdeKUS
regarding distance education and ICT. We construct a AdeKUS vision of the future, confront that with
a picture of current reality and derive an agenda for change. This agenda contains various starting
points for distance education. We list its potential for AdeKUS and finally formulate the proposed
AdeKUS Distance Education Strategy.

2.1 Suriname
Suriname covers an area of 164,000 square kilometres, is situated at the North-East coast of South-
America and is bordered by French-Guyana, Brazil, and Guyana. The total population counts about
493,000 people (Census 2005), a quarter of them less than 15 years old. About 90% of the population
live in a 40 km wide coastal strip, 70% of them in Paramaribo and the bordering district of Wanica.
Therefore, most of the educational institutes at secondary-senior and at tertiary levels are located there.
In 2002, the Ministry of Education and Community Development (Minov) concluded a participative
process to elaborate a politically neutral Suriname Educational Plan (SEP). SEP has a planning
horizon of 15-20 years. In 2004, a new plan was built on SEP: the Sector Plan Education. It has a
planning horizon of 2004-2008.
The Sector Plan Education gives an extensive description of the state of the educational system.
Regarding the higher education, i.e. AdeKUS and about six other institutes, it presents a list of serious
bottlenecks. Amongst them are:
• the content and the quality of the curriculum,
• the lack of learning materials,
• the incapable teaching staff (especially in didactical competencies and in ICT-use),
• the insufficient level of services, like the Internet,
• the low output levels,
• the growing number of students.
ICT is mainly seen as a tool for educational innovation. It helps in implementing new didactical
insights.
The Sector Plan describes a mission (focused on the person of the learner), targets (effectiveness,
efficiency, equal opportunity, international competitiveness of the labour force) and strategies to reach
these targets in the coming years. One of the latter is regional cooperation in the field of education. It
implies documenting and disseminating of educational resources and practices and "increasing and
broadening distance education technology and tools". A small unit of AdeKUS and IOL (Teachers
Education Institute) should start putting distance education into practice. Distance education is
considered to be a technology for regional educational cooperation.
Although the Sector Plan points at the internal and external inefficiency of the educational system, the
latter is dealt with rather implicitly. Other sources [Sedney, 2003] point at the "brain drain" at different
stages in the higher education process chain.
The bottom line is that Suriname wants to change its educational system in many aspects. It recognises
the growing importance of ICT. It considers distance education as a tool for regional educational
cooperation.
For the AdeKUS distance education strategy this implies that:
• strategic contributions of distance education other than for regional cooperation, might need extra
clarification,

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• any distance education strategy has to fit into an educational system that will be changing in many
aspects in the coming years; most of them have to be articulated further.

2.2 AdeKUS
The Anton de Kom University of Suriname was founded in 1968, 7 years before Suriname's
independence. At the occasion of its 35th anniversary in 2003, the University Board summarised its
history as: exciting growth in the 70s, ideological entanglement in the 80s, painful reconstruction in
the 90s, and creative innovation now [Sedney, 2003].
The figure below shows an organisation chart of the university plus the curricula they deliver
(Bachelor level).

Two new faculties are in preparation:
• Faculty of Humanities and Educational Science (Bachelor level
• Faculty of Graduate Studies (Masters and Ph.D., all in English)
The Faculty of Medical Sciences is located next to the Academic Hospital in Paramaribo. The rest of
the university is concentrated on a single campus (Leysweg, Paramaribo).
On 31 October 2005, the university counted about 440 students in the articulation year, 3200 regular
students and 580 staff members (full-time + part-time). The next figure shows the distribution of
students by faculty.

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Students by Faculty (N = 3636)

Faculty of Medical
Articulation Year Sciences

Faculty of
Technological
Sciences

Faculty of Social
Sciences

AdeKUS does not have a single comprehensive policy document. In various documents, the university
reports certain shortcomings it wants to change: Only a few percents of all students will ever get their
diploma; the number of publications by the scientific staff is low compared to the region; with the
Faculty of Medical Sciences as an exception, the number of staff having their doctorate is too low for
starting Master-courses.
The Draft Budget Financial Year 2006-2010 lists the AdeKUS strategy for the coming years:
• internationalising of all curricula (BaMa/Graduate),
• evaluating the planning & control structure,
• establishing a system for accreditation and quality control,
• offering short certified courses,
• raising the competence level of the scientific staff and offering possibilities to them to take their
Ph.D.,
• making up arrears in ICT faster.
Concerning ICT, the document is not explicit on the current state, nor on the desired state. Distance
education is mentioned as a possible way to organise master-courses. As long as AdeKUS does not
have enough qualified staff, it could bring in foreign staff via distance education.

2.3 Vision of the Future
At the moment, AdeKUS vision of the future is fragmented. Elements of it can be found in various
documents, speeches, interviews with members of the University Board, etceteras. To be able to
formulate a AdeKUS strategy for distance education, we need a coherent vision of the future of
AdeKUS itself. This "Gestalt View" is missing.
We used the knowledge, experience, diversity and commitment of our workgroups to synthesize a
preliminary AdeKUS vision. The Workgroup strategy formulated a general vision, the Workgroup
Education formulated the AdeKUS direction towards educational innovation. The result is shown in
the figure below. The blue texts should be considered as directions, not as absolute goals. We will
come back to this in our section "Agenda for Change".

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2.4 Current Reality
The counter part of a vision of the future is a picture of the current situation. Again both workgroups
were the primary sources of information. The following picture is the result.

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Although officially AdeKUS has not been involved in distance education, participants to our
workshops reported about 45 more-or-less informal local initiatives, both for course material
production and for its delivery. The figure below shows where these initiatives take place (each
reported initiative is indicated with a "@"-sign.

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CUPIDE / AdeKUS

Although listing all activities related to distance education in Suriname's society is out of the scope of
the current assignment, it should be noted that at every level of the education system there are projects
going on or there have been systems installed to innovate in the field of education and ICT, or more
specifically in the field of distance education. As an example, the Educons Foundation has set-up
about 30 "knowledge centres", i.e. computer rooms, near schools all over the coastal area and has
plans to go to the interior. These centres not only offer computer facilities and courses to schools, but
also to the local community.

2.5 Agenda for Change
When we compare the Vision of the Future with the picture of Current Reality, we can derive the
AdeKUS "Agenda for Change". Note, that this goes further than distance education alone.

28-12-2005 17

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Agenda for Change

Vision of the future Current Reality Agenda for change

AdeKUS is the principal state funded AdeKUS is the principal state funded From AdeKUS perspective, a more stable
higher education institute of Suriname. Its higher education institute of Suriname. Its way of funding is needed, e.g. based on a
importance for the development of the annual budget is the outcome of short-term management contract for delivering output
country is undisputed. political decision making. AdeKUS main (like education) in exchange for certain
interest is an annual budget to pay the input (budget).
salaries and to maintain its premisses.

Its education, research & development, and Its education, research & development, and AdeKUS needs an overall planning and
other forms of knowledge transfer other forms of knowledge transfer have control cycle. Individual projects are
contribute to the further social and various impacts on the further social and welcome, but have to fit into an overal
economic development of the country in economic development of the country. strategy or policy.
the direction of a knowledge society. Decision-making, planning, and control is
focused individual projects.

• Education - AdeKUS recruits its • Education - AdeKUS recruits its • AdeKUS needs to increase the quality
students mainly from Suriname and students mainly from Suriname. In of its educational processes, both in
the rest of the Caribbean region. It their perception a study abroad offers content and in delivery methods.
offers them a competitive foundation a more competitive foundation for a • AdeKUS needs to attract new
for a regional career, easy access to career. The number of drop-outs is categories of students (this requires
lifelong learning opportunities, and high. The percentage of students "supply chain management" and
membership of the AdeKUS leaving AdeKUS with a diploma is marketing)(e.g. the large reservoir of
community. the lowest of the region. drop-outs).

• AdeKUS needs to decrease its drop-
out rate by a systematic approach to
student performance monitoring and
guidance.

• Research & Development - AdeKUS • Research & Development - AdeKUS • AdeKUS needs a planning and
attracts foreign students and scientists welcomes foreign students and control process for scientific research,
in fields related to its unique natural, scientists in environmental sciences, scientific publications and other
cultural, and economic conditions. It tropical agriculture, and tropical dissemination activities.
offers them opportunities to specialise medicine. A clear policy on dealing
in environmental sciences, tropical with foreign students has to be
agriculture, tropical medicine, developed.
multicultural sociology, small
enterprise economy.

• Services - AdeKUS cooperates with • Services - AdeKUS sections • AdeKUS needs organisational units
government organisations, NGO's and cooperate with government for external communication and
enterprises to develop science based organisations, NGO's and enterprises marketing.
solutions for actual societal needs. to develop science based solutions for
actual societal needs.

AdeKUS is an appreciated partner in a AdeKUS is a partner in many relationships AdeKUS needs an organisational unit for
number of partnerships with other with other universities and NGO's in the external communication and cooperation.
universities, both in the Caribbean and in Caribbean, North- and South-America, and
the Benelux. Western Europe.

For its staff and students AdeKUS is a great For its staff and students AdeKUS is a AdeKUS needs better facilities for students
place to work and learn. Its open and pleasant place to work and learn. The who combine their study with other
collaborative atmosphere is characteristic atmosphere is open and collaborative. obligations.
for the AdeKUS community. People are Nevertheless, economic conditions force
proud to be a member of the AdeKUS both staff and students to look for
community. additional sources of income. This has a
negative impact on staff efforts for
innovation and on students' study success.

AdeKUS is operating efficiently using AdeKUS is operating as a set of loosely AdeKUS needs a professional ICT-
state-of-the-art ICT technology. It has a connected units. PC penetration varies by function, partially centralised, partially
clear and simple planning and control Faculty. The campus network (fibreglass) is decentralised.
process. As a whole it operates as a mainly used for Internet connection; no
learning organisation. LAN's have been implemented so far. AdeKUS needs an overall planning &
control cycle.

Concerning the agenda for educational innovation, we have to look at the pictures of Vision of the
Future and Current Reality again. The educational issues (in blue) were in fact extremes on a five

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points scale. The picture below gives the scores by Workgroup members on the 12 aspects involved.
In general we can conclude that the score for Current Reality is low (close to one of the extremes),
while score for Vision of the Future is high (close to the other extreme). The picture also displays the
difference between the "vision" and the "current" score. The gap between the vision on learning type
(self study versus collaborative work) and actual situation is relatively small. The gap between the
vision on management tasks (management of resources versus management of strategic vision) is
relatively large.

Current and Desired Position on 12 Educational Trends

5
4,5
4
3,5 current
3 desired
2,5 difference
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2.6 Distance Education Potential
For AdeKUS, distance education can contribute to its "Agenda for Change"; it is a method to increase
the quantity and the quality of its Bachelors and Masters. Five arguments:
• Distance education may attract new categories of students.
Distance education offers organisational flexibility to students. To participate in learning
processes, they are less dependent on time and place (i.e. Paramaribo). Especially, second
chance students (e.g. earlier drop-outs) will take advantage of it. The positive effect of distance
education will be enforced further, when the curricula become more flexible and shorter
courses and/or separate modules are offered. The student can get custom-made education in
that case.
• Distance education may decrease the number of drop-outs.
For students, distance education is better to combine with other activities. For teachers, the
ICT-based character of distance education enables the automatic generation of figures on
students (virtual) attendance and progress. These may be used for personal feedback and
guidance. The objection that distance education lacks the peer pressure of face-to-face learning
is a serious one. This drawback can be compensated by introducing some face-to-face meetings
(e.g. at the start and at the end of a course), by including virtual social and collaborative
activities to the course, and by guidance and face-to-face activities in a Distance Learning
Centre.
• Distance education may increase the quality of education.
1. There is a widespread need for more active learning processes, e.g. authentic learning,
collaborative learning, learning via simulations, learning through games. ICT in general,

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and distance education more specifically, offer the tools to implement these new ways of
learning.
2. Distance education also contributes to the desired internationalisation of education:
students can collaborate in international projects, from their homes students can participate
in courses abroad. Institutes can share course materials or co-produce them, teachers will
learn from colleagues abroad.
3. Where AdeKUS staff does not have the right quality or quantity, distance educations offers
a relatively cheap solution to work with teachers from abroad.
• Distance education may decrease the "brain drain" and "brain waste".
When distance education increases the quality of education, there is less need for students to go
studying abroad. Even when doing teaching practice abroad, the distance education tools can
maintain the link with Suriname at a high level.
• Distance education is a "must" for a modern university.
ICT and Distance Education is applied in an ever growing number of universities. When no
distance education is offered at AdeKUS , the effect on the university's image will be negative.

2.7 Distance Education Strategy
We propose a AdeKUS Distance Education strategy based on six components.
AdeKUS Distance Education Strategy

Strategy Component Comment

AdeKUS becomes a dual mode distance In order to increase the quantity and the quality of Suriname's Bachelors and
education university. Masters, AdeKUS will modify itself into a dual mode distance education institute.
AdeKUS sees this change process as a major change operation. It has to be
orchestrated with other major ongoing or planned change operations to strengthen
and improve the internal organisation. Concerning ICT, AdeKUS will create a
professional ICT-organisation, organise the management of large university-wide
systems and continue to organise more bandwidth for its Internet connection.

AdeKUS sets central quality standards; the AdeKUS will improve informal and cross faculty learning by teachers. It will
Faculties remain responsible for the course create a pool of DE professionals. It will develop central policies regarding
content. distance education. Course development and course delivery, however, remain the
responsibilities of the Faculties. In general, electronic courses will not be created
from scratch, but using existing face-to-face courses as starting point. Every
teacher will be trained in course delivery via distance education. Most teachers
will be trained in course development for distance education as well. A system for
teacher development will be created. Each faculty will include DE into its rules,
regulations, and organisation.

AdeKUS students get access to online AdeKUS students will have personalised access to the AdeKUS Virtual Learning
resources, e.g. a virtual learning environment. Environment that in due course will support all courses. Some courses can be
followed either face-to-face or via distance education. Other courses only can be
followed by distance education. A system to monitor students will be in place.
AdeKUS will analyse the facilities needed by students and try hard to organise
them.

AdeKUS chooses a systems approach to AdeKUS will set-up various monitoring systems, e.g. to follow the individual
organise its core processes. student, and to monitor (changes in) student streams.

AdeKUS participates in national community. AdeKUS will organise flexible forms of cooperation on a national level as distance
education may be a valuable strategy for other Suriname based educational
institutes as well.

AdeKUS participates in international AdeKUS opens the doors for national and international cooperation. It will let its
community. teachers operate in an international context. It will continue to participate in
CUPIDE, partially for mutual learning on distance education, partially for
exchanging educational resources, or for teaching each other's students.

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3 Implementation Plan
This chapter presents an analysis of the desired future with distance education and how to realise it. It
gives a synthesis of projects to be executed, and preconditions to fulfil (e.g. obstacles).

3.1 Analysis
3.1.1 AdeKUS 2010
To make the strategy more concrete, a scenario has been developed for AdeKUS in 2010. From the
perspective of about 11 stakeholders the future has been described, while looking back to the world in
2005. The following table "AdeKUS 2010" contains a summary of the scenario. The full text (11
pages) is available in Dutch.
AdeKUS 2010

Role Citation Summary

Student "Nieuw The LearningLearning site of Minov helped me to prepare my study selection; I could compose my
Nickerie is a personal study program. For enrolment, I could stay in my city and go to the notary. Introduction days
virtual were held here in Nieuw Nickerie and afterwards in Paramaribo too.
metropole"
Assignments are a crucial part of my learning process. I needed to develop enough self-discipline. The
Distance Learning Centre is my second home; it has excellent facilities.
One of my courses is run from Jamaica; next year I have an online project with students in Trinidad.

Student Going to More educational providers are active in Suriname now; AdeKUS offers more curricula as well as short
Counselor at study at courses. Distance education enables the students to study from their homes and ftom the lical Distance
Secondary Adekus? Yes, Learning Centres.
School please!
We guide our students to compose the right custom-made study arrangement. The LearningLearning
site of Minov is of great help.
The answer to "Going to study?", nowadays is almost always "Yes!". The answer to "Going abroad?",
nowadays is mostly "No".

Staff Member Less students The whole enrolment process now is an automated self-service process. Our system also handles the
of the Unit in a jam. enrolment for short courses. In well-defined cases we can give dispensation for certain assignments.
Student
Affairs We are the central service desk for students, even for personal problems; they can also find us in every
Distance Learning Centre.
Thanks to and despite of all the computer systems, we have a better look at the individual student and
can intervene when we see problems arise.

Head of a "The Every district will get its Distance Learning Centre. Students can come here to find computers, Internet
Distance Distance access, group meeting rooms, a staff member of Student Affairs, etceteras. We have facilities for
Learning Learning teleconferencing and for video telephone calls with Paramaribo.
Centre Centres are
the heart of The Distance Learning Centre have become so successful, that even in Paramaribo, every Faculty now
the modern has converted some lecture rooms to a Distance Learning Centre.
university"

Teacher Teacher Since we started using a Virtual Learning Environment, changes were going very fast. Students were
commutes very enthousiast. Then students stopped attending lectures and the number of lectures decreased
between dramatically.
"Course
Team" and My role as teacher changed. I'm part of a course team, developing new educational resources. And I'm a
"Chat Room" virtual tutor giving my attention to a group of students, virtually. Together we developed the AdeKUS
Guide for the Digital Teacher.

Staff Member "Finally From collecting books, we transformed to a knowledge broker connecting our students and staff to
of the again a study whatever source of information in the world.
University guide for the
Library whole Further, we now are publisher of hallmarked AdeKUS educational resources.
university" Our proud is the electronic study guide, covering all the courses and modules of the whole university.

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CUPIDE / AdeKUS

ICT- From Earlier we were completely focused on the technical infrastructure. That has been outsourced now.
specialist Handyman to
Consultant We now are the functional manager of a range of general software products, give classes and run a help
desk.
Further, we are consultants to the managtement for all sorts of issues relating ICT.

Staff Member "International The new unit for Educational Technology is permanently improving the educational production
of unit for ly, we are on process.
Educational the map"
Technology We produced the handbook for the "digital teacher" and participate in almost every course team.

Faculty "With less Communication within the AdeKUS community has greatly taken advantage of the new ICT systems
Manager managers a created for distance education.
better
managed Managers no longer have to spend a lot of time in transporting information from one organisational
university" level to the other. The system does that for us.

Business "AdeKUS is AdeKUS is an interesting business partner. It is our gateway to a tremendous amount of information
Person always on our and a potential partner for almost every new development project we want to start.
shortlist"

Counsel for Distance Our Ministry not only is involved in policy making. It also delivers some services to the community.
the Ministry Education One of them is our LearningLearning website, a great hit. It gives information on study possibilities,
of Education offers a 2nd offers online courses to eliminate certain deficiencies, etceteras.
change to
many people.

Both workgroups explored the above scenario in a simulation game. Each participant played a role out
of the list of 11 and had meetings with other roles. In general, the participants reacted enthusiastic. Not
only did they like the method, but also they appreciated the sketch of a future with distance education.
Time was not available to discuss all the details of the scenario. However, in general the projected
future was considered to be both feasible and desirable. Some shared conclusions:
• Special attention needs the contact between teacher and student. It should not deteriorate when
switching to distance education.
• Further, it has not become clear yet, how the optimal balance between face-to-face meetings and
distance education can be determined.
The implementation of distance education is an innovation process. It will take time and cannot be
executed overnight. The process should initially focus on the teachers who are "early adopters" of
distance education. They are willing to invest time and energy, even if not all conditions are
favourable. Next, the "early majority" gets the turn, followed by the "late majority", and ultimately by
the "laggards". In other words: it does not make sense to try to change teachers who refused to touch a
computer until now; at least not at this moment.

3.1.2 Priorities Workgroup Strategy
Given the AdeKUS 2010 experience, both workgroups composed a prioritised list of projects to be
executed in the coming years.

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The figure above shows the priorities according to the Workgroup Strategy. The highest priorities are
numbered 1 - 5. It was a surprise that none of these priorities dealt with distance education directly.
They all regard obstacles for distance education that have to be removed first:
• Absolute top priority is ICT. It is undisputed that the current Internet bandwidth is far too low.
And, although there are no figures available on the actual number of PC's, oral arguments to
increase that number sound reasonable. By the way, the ongoing SON-project will give some
relief in this sense. Nevertheless, the ICT priority only partially is a matter of buying more
bandwidth, hardware, and software. It is the whole ICT function that has to be kept aligned with
the needs of the near future.
• The second position is for Planning & Control. At the moment AdeKUS, has no fixed planning
and control procedure for its various policy domains. Decisions usually are made on an incident-
base and without regular feedback on their implementation. The strength of this approach is
operational flexibility. Its weakness, however, is that it may frustrate routine processes as well as
processes organised as projects.
• The third position is for the development of a AdeKUS portal. In fact, the portal is only the
packing. The underlying need is to have a communication medium for the AdeKUS community
(the current paper bulletin has not been released for months) and a complete and actual study
guide listing all curricula, courses and modules.
• The fourth priority implies the insertion of expertise in the field of educational technology. This
relates to educational innovation and indirectly to distance education as well.
• The fifth priority is a shared position for both Student Affairs and Student Services.

3.1.3 Priorities Workgroup Education

The Workgroup Education came to a different picture. Here again the need for a AdeKUS-wide
communication channel was mentioned. It was called a weekly news bulletin here. The Workgroup
accepted it as the mother of all solutions.
• The first priority goes to:
• setting-up distance learning centres - indispensable to support the students, be it only with
adequate ICT provisions;

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CUPIDE / AdeKUS

• setting-up training for teachers in electronic course development - the "early adopters" can
no longer wait;
• connection to and cooperation with other universities - it could be very stimulating when
AdeKUS staff could get out of their isolated position at the one and only university in
Suriname.
• The second priority goes to:
• special software for students with arrears - self-study modules are socially safe tools for
students to handle certain disadvantages, like language problems;
• student monitoring system - especially from the point of view to help the individual
student;
• online research - a way to win scientific staff for distance education is offering them
advantages for their research tasks as well;
• online courses for teachers in their own field of expertise - also a way to introduce teachers
to distance education;
• development of electronic course material - last but not least: apart from all the supporting
activities, it should not be forgotten that a certain volume of electronic courses is needed,
to create a critical mass.

3.2 Synthesis
3.2.1 Possible Roadmap
The Workgroup Strategy developed a first draft of a possible roadmap for the coming five years. The
consultant finished it.
Possible Roadmap

Stakeholder 2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 Bottom Line

University Set-up a DE Define business Specify internal (try to) Pass the tasks of Strengthen &
Board Steering models for and/or external Implement the the Distance improve the
Committee and distance policy changes policy changes Education internal
Office. education. needed to needed. Steering organisation.
implement the Committee and
Set-up yearly Set-up a unit for business models. Office to the Orchestrate
P&C cycle. external permanent changes in
communication organisation. external rules &
Create internal & (international) regulations
comm. channel. cooperation. needed.

External Continue and Establish Contribute Obtain CUPIDE Deliver courses Open the doors
cooperation extend bilateral contacts AdeKUS educational to CUPIDE and for national and
participation in with CUPIDE educational resources for let CUPIDE international
CUPIDE. partners. resources to AdeKUS. deliver courses cooperation.
CUPIDE. to AdeKUS
Build national Organise Organise a students. Let teachers
community of national Organise national operate in
practice on conference on international conference on Organise external and/or
distance distance CUPIDE distance another int. conf. international
education. education. conference on education. context.
DE in Suriname

Internal Build a Maintain Yearly round of Yearly round of Yearly round of Improve
Cooperation community of community for innovative innovative innovative informal
practice of feedback and for projects. projects. projects. learning and
AdeKUS (& recruitment of cross faculty
IOL) on distance participants to learning.
education. innovative
projects. Create a pool of
Organise DE
internal seminar. professionals.

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CUPIDE / AdeKUS

Faculties / Standardise the Publish a Evaluate first Implement Adapt Each faculty
Institutes content of the standardised experiences with necessary evaluation (preferably all
study guide. electronic study distance changes in mechanisms for together) has
guide. education. faculty rules & curricula and included DE into
regulations. courses to its rules,
Try to distance regulations,
standardise other education. organisation.
student related
procedures.

Teachers "Early adopters" "Early majority" "Late majority" "Laggards" are "Laggards" are A system for
are trained in are trained in are trained in trained in DE trained in DE teacher
DE course DE course DE course delivery only. delivery only. development is
creation and creation and creation and in place (by
delivery. delivery. delivery. Systematic training,
course delivery coaching).
First version of Hallmark for DE Systematic evaluation
DE Style Book. courses. course creation introduced. A system for
evaluation course
introduced. evaluation
(creation &
delivery) is in
place.

Students Incidental 25 courses 75 courses 225 courses All courses All courses
experiments available with available with available with available with online for VLE
with DE. VLE support. VLE support. VLE support. VLE support. support, at least
10% real DE.
Pilot with study 10% of them 10% of them 10% of them
centre. completely DE. completely DE. completely DE. Systems to
monitor students
Set-up student First study 2 new study 4 new study in place.
monitoring. centre opened. centres opened. centres opened.

ICT- SON: better Support Support Organise more Organise more Create a
professionals technical operational operational bandwidth. bandwidth. professional ICT
infrastructure,m VLE. AdeKUS Portal. organisation.
ore PC's.
Support student Support link to Organise large
Delivering basic information external systems support.
ICT courses. system. databases.
Organise more
Switching to Organise more Organise more bandwidth.
service oriented bandwidth. bandwidth.
organisation.

3.2.2 Activities
As the possible roadmap illustrates, implementing the AdeKUS distance education strategy is a
process with many stakeholders. It is related to educational innovation in general, AdeKUS
management structures and processes, the ICT infrastructure and services, the ICT market
(bandwidth!), and local economic conditions. The stakeholders have other interest than distance
education alone, the related issues may follow their own change processes over time. To conclude,
implementing the AdeKUS distance education strategy is a complex process with many uncertainties.
This process cannot be organised as a single project with a well defined begin and endpoint and with a
fixed amount of resources. Nevertheless, it should be managed. Therefore we recommend a program
approach consisting of a Steering Committee, a small staff, a series of projects, not all of them have
been formulated at the start of the program already, and certain incentives (grants).
The following table lists the six components of the AdeKUS Distance Education Strategy and how
they could be implemented. It can be considered as a draft plan for the years 2005/2006 and
2006/2007. Every year in August, the Steering Committee should produce a plan for the next year.

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CUPIDE / AdeKUS

Proposed Activities

Strategy Component Proposed Implementation

AdeKUS becomes a dual mode distance • DESC - Distance Education Steering Committee - Steering Committee
education university. reporting to AdeKUS University Board, consisting of: one representative of
each faculty and articulation year, representative of ICT Steering Committee,
Library, IKIM, Student Affairs. Could be a joint Committee with IOL as
well. Responsibilities: management of distance education implementation,
i.e. preparing a yearly plan for projects and other activities, supervising
distance education projects, communicating consistently with internal and
external stakeholders, representing the distance education aspect in other
internal and external projects, keeping distance education projects aligned
with other developments at AdeKUS.
• DEO - Distance Education Office - Two full-time staff (at MSc and BSc
level) for DESC policy preparation and execution, DE promotion, project
support, incidental individual advise. Temporary office for three years.
• 2005/2006 Project DE Launch - Prepare the launch of distance education at
the start of 2006/2007. This project aims at bringing online in a standard
AdeKUS Virtual Learning Environment: 1) (as far as possible) the course
materials developed as local initiatives until now, 2) about 25 courses from
all faculties. Part of this project is the training and counselling of about 25
teachers in developing distance education materials. The project will
cooperate with the various Faculty commissions in order to conform as much
as possible to current regulations, discuss changes, and to prepare a solid
evaluation.
• 2005/2006 Project Extra Bandwidth - Use the CUPIDE offer to augment
Internet bandwidth by installing a VSAT terminal at the Medical Faculty and
at the AdeKUS campus (Leysweg).
• 2006/2007 Project DE Roll-Out - Prepare the continued growth of distance
education during 2007/2008. This project aims at 75 courses with online
activities from all faculties. Now courses will be selected and./or created
according to specific criteria.
• 2006/2007 Project Pilot Distance Learning Centres - Prepare a pilot with a
distance education centre out of Paramaribo during 2007/2008. Including
extra bandwidth via VSAT.

• 2007/2008 and further - Yearly Round with Grants for Innovative Projects.

AdeKUS sets central quality standards; the • Community of Practice Educational Innovation - Organise a so-called
Faculties remain responsible for the course Community of Practice (CoP), a nationwide group of teachers, management,
content. ICT-staff to engage in educational innovation: new concepts, etceteras. They
could maintain an overview of all local initiatives in distance education,
search the web for whatever resources that might be useful, organise
exchange of experiences and disseminate their insights. Note, that this CoP
goes further than distance education alone.

• Joint Educational Committee - Organise a group of representatives of faculty
education commissions to propose central policies regarding distance
education, course development (hallmark?), course delivery, teacher training
and monitoring, individual student monitoring and guidance, etceteras. The
members also take care for the proper inclusion of DE into faculty rules,
regulations, and organisation.

AdeKUS students get access to online • Joint Student Committee - Organise a group of student representatives from
resources, e.g. a virtual learning environment. the three faculties to discuss distance education from a students point of
view, provisions needed, quality of the services being offered, etceteras.
Note, that this initiative could go further than distance education alone, e.g.
in discussing the web portal functionality, Internet café rebates, laptop
project, etceteras.

AdeKUS chooses a systems approach to • Process Management - Organise a group of stakeholders to develop a system
organise its core processes. to monitor the educational core processes as a whole.

AdeKUS participates in national community. • Note that the Community of Practice Educational Innovation is a nationwide
community. It could be involved in the organisation of an annual national
conference on Educational Innovation (August 2007?).

AdeKUS participates in international • Let DESC - Distance Education Steering Committee stimulate international
cooperation and exchange, e.g. with CUPIDE, CKLN, UNESCO,

28-12-2005 26

Strategic plan for distance education at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS)

Strategic plan for distance education at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS)

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Strategic plan for distance education at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS)