About SADC-CDE
The Southern African Development Community Centre for Distance Education (SADC - CDE) is an Open and Distance Learning Centre of Excellence in Southern Africa, established in June 2005.
The key mandate of the Centre is to promote collaborative initiatives in capacity building towards regional best practices in Open and Distance (e)Learning (ODeL) for accelerated human resources development. To realise its key mandate, the Centre is tasked with the following:
- - Capacity Building in ODL/ODeL.
- - Facilitation of collaboration among ODL institutions.
- - Facilitation of research in ODL in the region.
- - Promotion of advocacy for Distance Education.
- - Facilitation of sharing of resources: materials, information and expertise.
- - Nurturing and supporting delivery of quality Distance Education.
- - Dissemination of COL related information locally (COL Focal Point).
Our Advisory Board
The Centre is led by a Director who works closely with the Regional Advisory Board (AB). The Board membership is sourced from various SADC member states and other partner organisations such as UNESCO. The Chair of the Advisory Board is the Vice Chancellor of Botswana Open University, who host the Centre.
Role at the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA)
The Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA) seeks to be a powerhouse in distance and open learning in the region of Southern Africa. Members are drawn from the SADC member states. The association is led by the EXCO, with SADC-CDE as the Secretariat. As per the 2004-2005 Strategic Plan, DEASA’s general objective, as stated in its constitution, is to “enable members to share information, to collaborate in obtaining and developing quality distance education courses in identified areas of need, and to organise relevant professional development activities.” By being a central co-ordinating point for regional ODL organisations from where member countries and institutions can share and create collaboration opportunities, DEASA seeks to underline the principle that co-operation and shared application of resources can contribute to improved efficiencies in the provision of ODL, thereby promoting the chances of more widespread and faster growth in the sector. It seeks to address inequalities in the immediate region by tackling them with combined e-learning efforts.
Programmes / Courses
Certificate for Distance Education Practitioners (CDEP): The CDEP qualification is offered online. The learners are sent the study materials and in turn submit their assignments to the course co-ordinator through the portal, using the Moodle platform. They continue to communicate with both the coordinator and tutors via the e-mail and other ICT means. This enables participants to experience distance education methodology first hand. COL annually sponsors some students working for ODL institutions in the region. SADC also encourages that the qualification should address the 9 areas of training needs identified by SADC-ODL project among the nine ADF countries of the SADC member countries. At the moment, the Centre is looking for collaborating partners to source for programmes to offer to people who may need them.
SADC-CDE also continues to share MOOCs with member states to encourage continuous and lifelong learning.
Our Values
Quality Service
Team Work
Consultation
Life-long Learning
Our Tripartite Partnership
