Open Distance Learning for Development: Lessons from Strengthening Research Capacity on Gender, Crisis Prevention, and Recovery

This paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating research capacity for gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. It presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of women professionals through both online and face-to-face interactions to learn the skills needed to be a successful researcher. It reviews the issues related to distance learning programs with particular reference to the e-learning courses and highlights the constraints and challenges in implementing them. Lessons from the experience for future development of similar courses indicate that participant profiling prior to the course, user friendliness of technology, meeting various learning styles, encouraging and rewarding online exchanges, commitment of course moderators, a variety of learning materials, and mixed approaches to learning are some of the factors that can enhance the success of e-learning programs. The paper concludes that enhancing skills of developing country researchers through e-learning programs can increase learning accessibility to those living and working in remote and conflict ridden areas, and bring together a network of professionals to interact and exchange experiences on common problems and solutions.


Résumé de l'article
This paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating research capacity for gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. It presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of women professionals through both online and face-to-face interactions to learn the skills needed to be a successful researcher. It reviews the issues related to distance learning programs with particular reference to the e-learning courses and highlights the constraints and challenges in implementing them. Lessons from the experience for future development of similar courses indicate that participant profiling prior to the course, user friendliness of technology, meeting various learning styles, encouraging and rewarding online exchanges, commitment of course moderators, a variety of learning materials, and mixed approaches to learning are some of the factors that can enhance the success of e-learning programs. The paper concludes that enhancing skills of developing country researchers through e-learning programs can increase learning accessibility to those living and working in remote and conflict ridden areas, and bring together a network of professionals to interact and exchange experiences on common problems and solutions.

Introduction
Gender mainstreaming, a process of assessing implications of policies and programs on men and women to ensure gender equity, has been a priority in different areas of development since the 1990s (UN, 1997). However, this concept was quite neglected in crisis prevention and recovery, where communities, regions, and nations attempt to design programs to improve the livelihoods of a population that is recovering from natural and man-made calamities. With the United Nation's Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, and the United Nation's Eight Point Agenda, the practice of gender mainstreaming in crisis prevention and recovery is increasing. Despite this growing awareness and practice, the ability to respond effectively with programs and policies during crisis is highly limited by the scarcity of gender-specific or related research and analysis in crisis prevention and recovery. This is partly due to lack of capacity to develop research proposals and raise resources for the implementation of the research projects. This paper documents the lessons learned from an effort to narrow this capacity gap through a combination of distance education and face-to face approaches.
Through intensive training and mentorship with developing country researchers and junior faculty, the collaborative effort described in this paper responded to the glaring absence of intellectual leadership on gender dimensions of crisis prevention and recovery, especially from within affected communities in developing countries. Decades of crises in several developing countries in Africa have left many research and academic institutions in dearth of material, human resources, and social capital (Fukuyama, 2004). This has negatively influenced gender-related research with respect to training women researchers, setting research priorities, and accessing research funds and other knowledge resources such as conferences, journals, and publications. Although gender mainstreaming itself cannot remedy these long-standing and cumulative impacts, this collaboration aimed at ensuring those most affected by crises share in the process of building new knowledge and in shaping intellectual and research agendas. Further, it aimed at strengthening research capacity through a combination of distance education using digital approaches combined with the face-to-face building up of practical capacity for research proposal development.
This paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing a combined elearning and face-to-face program aimed at creating research capacity for gender, crisis prevention, and recovery (G-CPR).  (Gulati, 2008). However, challenges to expansion of courses and curriculum to information and communication technology (ICT) based delivery methods have come from different directions (Okonkwo, 2012). Skeptics continue to question the quality of electronically delivered educational programs. It is not always clear how the participants who get their education through online courses fare compared to those who receive face-to-face course content in formal settings (Ogunsola, 2010). The debate is nowhere more prominent than in the international development community, where there is a need to improve local capacity of professionals in developing countries who live and work in remote and conflict ridden areas. In addition, assessment, analysis, design, and implementation of programs and projects have become critical for increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of intervention programs that attempt to enhance the capacity for crisis prevention and recovery (Leary & Berge, 2006).

Challenges in Implementing Online Educational Programs
Nevertheless, research and educational institutions and capacity development programs have attempted to spread their reach to unreachable populations through various forms of distance education for decades beginning with the first generation method of printed correspondence learning methods. With this same primary goal of expanding their reach to previously unserved populations, during the mid to late 1990s, there was a renewed explosion of distance education using e-learning, or online/web-based learning delivery methods (Mandinach, 2005). The proliferation of web-based learning has been spurred in part by technological advances and economic considerations as institutions look for more cost effective methods of reaching ever greater populations (Potashnik & Capper, 1998;UNESCO, 2002). The quantity of potential learners continues to increase as developing countries improve their technological infrastructure and more people have internet and broadband access.
Further, as technological advances in media opened up new avenues for distance education, the involved institutions sought to move beyond the more basic delivery characteristics of flexibility in time, place, and pace to address issues such as advanced interactivity in learning in what is now termed the fifth generation of distance education (Taylor, 2001). However many institutions are still in the initial stages of incorporating  (Mandinach, 2005;Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012). As they gain experience incorporating web-based learning into their existing programs, institutions will begin to find their niches in the new online learning environment. Yet, documentation of the issues, constraints, and challenges in implementing online courses continue to be limited in developing countries.

Learner Characteristics and Demand for Web-Based Education
The demand for web-based education has been increasing along with the growing emphasis on the role of continuing education for sustaining gains from development assistance. Lifelong learning through continuing one's education has become a competitive necessity. As a result, the profile of the typical learner who seeks open and distance education is changing. So is the type of learning activity that best suits such needs. Learners are older now that there is a greater demand for professionals to continue learning and expanding their skill set well into adulthood. The motivations that drive adult learners are different from traditional school-age learners, as is what they typically want to get out of a learning opportunity. Adult learners are particularly motivated by interests in professional advancement and want to make use of their own life experiences and be able to directly apply learning experiences to their professional challenges (Howell, Williams, & Lindsay, 2003). Moreover, adult learners are particularly interested in the implications and applications of what they are learning (O'Rourke, 2003). These learners are most interested in short courses and executive mid-career style courses that will fit their needs but not interfere too much with their busy lives. Online, web-based learning is well-suited to these learners with its wide range of potential learning tools and capacity to directly relate to their professional lives (Freeman, 2004).

Competitiveness and Quality of Learning Materials
In the mid to late 1990s, many capacity strengthening and higher education institutions rushed to fill this new demand for continuing education. The first generation of online learning (or the fourth generation of distance education) was based on translating traditional face-to-face, classroom instruction to be posted on the internet (Johnson & Aragon, 2003). These courses are characterized predominantly by plain text materials and resources from traditional classroom materials being posted online. The flow of communication is in one direction, from the instructor to the students. As online course designers expanded their understanding and knowledge of the full capacity of webbased learning management system programs, the flow of communication has shifted to a multi-directional, free flow of information generating from both learners and instructors and flowing between learners and instructors/tutors and amongst learners themselves (UNESCO, 2002). With the proliferation of institutions developing webbased learning programs (e.g., higher education institutions, capacity strengthening the market for these programs is becoming highly competitive (Smyth & Zenetis, 2007).
Specialization in distance education programs is taking place as institutions attempt to meet the demands of specific segments of the learner population (Howell et al., 2003).
As more courses, degrees, and universities become available through web-based, distance education programs, there will be an increase in the demand for high quality course offerings and lower tolerance for those of poor quality. Related to the growing competitive environment in web-based learning programs is a growing trend toward developing institutional partnerships in order to design, develop, and deliver online courses (Howell et al., 2003;UNESCO, 2002). Partnerships are emerging between colleges and universities as well as with private organizations, international development institutions, and institutions dedicated to capacity strengthening.
As discussed above, web-based, distance learning programs enable institutions with capacity strengthening programs to reach learners that might not be able to participate in more traditional short courses and other face-to-face learning activities. Although female professionals face similar challenges as male professionals with respect to capacity development, women are particularly disadvantaged due to their limited mobility and additional household responsibilities. Given the challenges of time and space, not to mention the active schedules, heavy workloads, and travel schedules of typically targeted learners, capacity strengthening workshops often are not able to get the people they most want because the targeted learners cannot be physically present for a one-or two-week short course. In addition, the ebb and flow of donor interest in funding capacity strengthening components in projects as well as the lack of sufficient in-house resources often prevents institutions from conducting the full number of capacity strengthening workshops and short courses in the number of countries that is needed to make a significant impact.

Distance Learning in the Context of International Development
International organizations have shown a high level of interest in incorporating webbased, open, and distance learning programs to expand the delivery of workshops, short courses, and training programs. The key reason for the development of distance education programs is expanding the institution's reach to a larger pool of target learners. Online learning activities enable the institution to broaden its reach to target learners, limited only by the internet connectivity of the targeted geographical location.
A global trend is the rapidity with which many developing countries have embraced the potential of open and distance learning and are incorporating information communication technologies (ICT) as a strategy to alleviate problems of access, equity, and quality (UNESCO, 2002). As developing countries improve the national ICT infrastructure, international development organizations are able to access ever more remote rural areas, and with lower unit costs than traditional face-to-face workshops, they are able to offer courses on a greater range of subject matters while reducing capacity strengthening expenses (Freeman, 2004). web-based learning can be used to complement any program; it is not limited to those projects related to or using ICTs.
Another reason for development organizations' interest in web-based learning is that using online technologies to offer distance education programs presents an opportunity The E-Learning Course on Proposal Development The e-learning program described here responded to the institutional and funding challenges faced by younger female and male researchers who want to spend extended periods of time engaged with the conceptual, epistemological, and methodological challenges of gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. By strengthening the skills of young researchers and junior faculty, thereby strengthening their professional profile, and increasing their access to intellectual and financial resources, this course would play a crucial role in ensuring that the field of gender, crisis prevention, and recovery would be informed by those most affected by crises and would have a committed and uniquely qualified cadre of researchers for decades to come.
In a research field largely dominated by northern institutions, southern researchers and practitioners often lack the necessary capability to voice their concerns on gender and crisis. One of the major obstacles to building their research capacity is the availability of funds for nurturing those who have talent and an inclination for a research career. They lack the skills needed for fund raising such as proposal writing and are unfamiliar with the complex rules and conditions of the grants they are applying for. This applies even more for women whose specific perspectives have long been ignored in both southern and northern contexts. Consequently, their valuable knowledge easily gets lost and remains undocumented. Meanwhile interactions with donor agencies remain imbalanced and are characterized by limited ownership of southern partners as well as a lack of response to the actual needs on the ground.
In order to respond to the lack of fund raising skills, the major objective of this collaboration was to build southern capacities in designing research proposals on topics related to gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. Strengthening researchers' skills in proposal writing is a sustainable way of helping them to access grants that will increase knowledge and understanding and enable profound analyses of G-CPR related themes.
With these skills, southern researchers will be able to develop high-quality proposals that not only increase the chances of funding and actual implementation but also the standards of the research itself. Given the theme provided by IDRC, a funding agency, and the growing attention paid to women's participation in politics, this proposal course was tailored in this specific area by providing examples relating to women's political participation. The course built on a growing body of practice that has provided important insights about the challenges of addressing gender issues, responding to women's unique needs, and supporting their contributions in recovery processes.
Further, literature related to feminist methodology and women's political participation formed the foundation for the entire course, the assignments, and the readings.
Although women and communities most affected by the crises have been engaged and consulted in the development of programs and policy responses through rapid needs assessment and 'lesson-learned' case studies, it is sobering to note that very few southern researchers have been the lead authors, researchers, or principal investigators.
Consequently, their ability to frame the research questions, choose the appropriate Affected Areas in Africa and the Middle East." Regional experts in the field of gender and crisis prevention in Asia and Africa were consulted to provide input for the course and to propose case study materials. Using an interactive process, the course was designed to engage participants with one another and course facilitators, to develop the basis for a comparative framework, and to strengthen regional and cross-regional collaboration.
A course moderator moderated the course and was available to the course participants through email, chat in discussion forums and Skype, and phone conversations.

Course objectives.
This e-training course aimed to provide hands-on technical assistance in the development of action research proposals. This course also sought to provide the opportunity for researchers in the G-CPR network to use a real-life proposal in their course work and emerge with a high quality proposal that can be submitted for peer review and further consideration.
Specific objectives included: • to develop skills for preparing policy research proposals, • to understand the elements of a winning proposal, • to analyse some examples of good proposals, • to gain practical skills for organizing the components of a proposal, • to review some of the existing resources for proposal writing.
Logistics for the online course.
The course ran for four weeks and its lessons and modules were organized on a weekly basis. This helped to facilitate active dialogue between participants and the course moderator as well as provide an organized structure to the dialogues. However, participants were encouraged to work at their own pace and during the hours most suitable for their schedule. It was suggested that lessons be discussed and any questions be raised regarding specific lessons during the week in question.
An assignment was given to the participants at the completion of each lesson to test the participant's understanding of the lesson concepts. Participants were asked to turn in their assignment to the course moderator prior to moving on to the next topic. All  The course was targeted at advanced and starting researchers who seek to translate their experiences into academic research. Applicants at least had a master's degree and showed interest and/or experience in gender and crisis related issues. It was envisioned however that these areas of interest would be broadly sketched to encourage creative and interdisciplinary approaches to further expand this field of knowledge.

Selection of participants.
Nineteen participants were selected by IDRC through a careful review process. Three specific criteria were used to select the participants: They must come from an organization that deals with gender mainstreaming in relation to crisis prevention and recovery, they must be women, and they must have a master's degree and above on a subject related to gender issues. However, special consideration was given to proposed research ideas that integrated gender perspectives, had policy relevance and potential contribution to the field, and had a clearly articulated methodology and feasible objectives. Care was also taken to ensure a diverse group of participants in terms of backgrounds and professional expertise.

Advisory group and resources for proposal development.
An advisory group was established to provide guidance on the development of an online research proposal development course. A multidisciplinary group of advisers, with expertise in feminist methodology, theory, gender analysis, and relevant regional and thematic areas were asked to • review the overall course outline, sequencing, and scope;

Structure of the course and online platform.
Almost 75% of the participants contended that the course should be less intensive and should span more than four weeks. Further, in order to write a proposal concurrently with the course lessons, the course should run for more than eight weeks. Around 67% of the participants agreed that there would be a benefit in peer reviewing each other's assignments during the open course and many are willing to invest time to do this.
Although many participants found that the Moodle e-learning platform was easy to access and navigate, the problem of insufficient internet access and slow speed was the main hurdle for them throughout the course. Despite this problem of slow internet speed and limited access, 67% of the participants expressed their interest to participate in another online course offered through the Moodle platform.

Role of the moderator.
The course moderator played an important role in the learning process. In addition to being on constant watch for learning support needed by the participants, the moderator issues from the participants. Given the challenges of poor internet connectivity, the role of moderator in keeping the participants on the same page is crucial for the success of the program. The course moderator also needs to be well versed in the content to give regular feedback and answer questions from the participants as they come up during the e-learning program. Moderating online courses with participants from developing countries requires flexibility and empathy to understand the challenges they face.
Regular encouragement and motivation is also needed from the moderator.

Advisory group member.
Around 75% of the participants constantly communicated with their advisor through emails, Skype, and phone regarding the proposal content and the course assignments.
The participants who communicated with the advisor found that the advisor's comments were clear and comprehensible and demonstrated substantive proposal writing experience. Of those who communicated with the advisor, almost 89% revised their proposal to include the advisor's comments and suggestions. Based on the advisor's suggestions and comments, the most revised sections in the proposal included research methods, objectives, data collection tools, defining target population, and sample size.

Online course outcomes.
All participants concurred that participating in an online course was a good investment of time. Around 91% of the participants recorded 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 -with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest score -for the effectiveness of the course. The recommendations from the participants for further improvement of the course included: • providing simple and more reference materials, • extending the time span of the course, • extending the due date for submitting assignments, • extending interaction with the advisor and peer group, • facilitating peer review of the course assignment and the proposal, • including more examples in the lesson.

Workshop.
Around 91%  This evaluation did not assess the final proposals prepared by the participants as they were handled by the donor. However, feedback from the experts who were hired by the donor indicated that the quality of the proposals improved substantially to the extent that the proposals were ready to be considered for funding.

Lessons for Future Capacity Development Programs
Several key lessons emerged from the implementation of the e-learning program described in the case study above.
Understand the capacity needs of the learners: Designers of the e-learning programs need to fully understand the background and the needs of the learners in order to increase the relevance and the utility of the program. Matching the skills needs with the content could optimize the learning speed and make the learning process effective.
Make the learning program user friendly: Adult learners are increasingly becoming accustomed to internet based learning platforms. Yet efforts to increase the user friendliness of the e-learning modules can help reduce the fear of the technology and focus on the content of learning. Highly complex algorithms to retrieve, store, and use course contents reduce the frequency of access and hence the efficiency of learning.
Cater to different types of learners: Learners have varying degrees of absorptive capacity depending on their ways of learning. While it is difficult to distinguish the type of learners during the e-learning program, one way to reach out to all learners is to provide a variety of learning activities that cater to different types of learners. Modules should help visual and auditory learners. Those who prefer hands-on experience should be equally accommodated to achieve maximum results through the learning programs.
Encourage and reward online exchanges: Self-motivation remains a major challenge in an e-learning program. There is need for constant attention to inclusion of activities that bring the participants to the course and reward them for their efforts. This is a particular challenge in the courses that do not offer credits that could be used towards larger accomplishments such as a diploma or a degree. Involvement of the course moderator to engage the participants effectively throughout the course is an important success factor. Encouraging online exchanges among the participants that keep them actively engaged in the course will be essential for the success of the program. Mixed approaches to learning: A major objective of distance learning programs is to reduce the cost of learning by allowing participants to stay on their jobs and in their own living environments without disturbing whatever they are doing.. Yet, an element of face-to face interaction can increase the benefits of the learning process multi-fold.
However, incorporating the face-to-face element will depend on the availability of resources and the ability of the participants to pay for such an approach.

Sustainability of the approach:
A key lesson learnt from the exercise relates to sustainability. This approach of combining e-learning with the face-to-face workshops is more feasible financially when the program is implemented within a country. Regional and global level courses will incur high costs in bringing the participants together, While the use of e-learning as an educational delivery mechanism is still nascent in sub-Saharan Africa (Okonkwo, 2012), experience from the above program shows that it has high potential to reach out to a large number of learners with limited resource costs.
However, the problem of slow internet connectivity and difficult access to the internet, at times, frustrate the learners and demotivate them to participate in e-learning (dela Peña-Bandalaria, 2007). This pilot course also provided the lesson that the course should span at least eight weeks in order to allow participants to develop the proposal concurrently as part of the learning process. In addition to the proposal development course, the participants also brought up the demand for courses such as measuring impact, detailed data analysis techniques and methodology, and using econometric and statistical software for data analysis. Further research is needed to identify the best combinations of e-learning and the face-to face program, best mode of delivery, best combinations of reading materials and the discussion sessions, and ways to improve motivation among the distance learners. In this context, the importance of promoting opportunities for developing course contents as open educational resources and using them effectively in the distance education programs cannot be overemphasized.

Course Schedule for the Four Week Online Course
Week One During this week, participants will be introduced to each other and to the online course.
In the first lesson, we will introduce the purpose of research proposal, qualities of successful research proposals, the IDRC proposal requirements, and evaluation criteria for the proposal. The second lesson will provide an overview of how to situate research concept notes within a critical review of relevant literature across disciplines. Based on review of relevant literature and contemporary policy debates, the third lesson will focus on formulating problem-centred and participatory derived research questions and objectives. Week Two In the second week, we will begin with the ethical considerations for the research in relation to ensuring access and research permissions, data safety, and security of research and study populations. The fifth lesson will look into key elements needed to present the proposed research design. The sixth lesson will review key elements necessary for describing research methodology, with a focus on data collection. Week Four In week four, we will begin with how to present information on staffing, partnerships and project management in clear and concise manner. Lesson 11 will provide you some tips for preparing convincing budgets. The last lesson emphasizes the importance and discusses an art of writing appealing abstract, the very first section of a proposal. To address specific issues related to Eastern and Southern Africa To understand research projects' context and relevance To prioritize research questions and identify specific research objectives To begin a discussion of target users To have research team members engage one another in active discourse Presentation and Discussion Format: Each team (Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan) will make 15 to 20 minute presentations. These presentations should be based on the literature reviews conducted by each research team in preparation of their proposal development. If using a PowerPoint presentation, it should be no more than 12 to 14 slides. The presentations should focus three main topics: 1. The current literature and debates on women's political participation in the region with particular emphasis on the country 2. Key research findings -What is known from past research conducted on this topic in this particular region/country? 3. Research gaps -What new knowledge is needed in order to increase young women's political participation in this region/country? How do you prioritize these research gaps?

Day 2
9:00-9:45-Increasing Young Women's Political Participation: Conceptual and theoretical models of democratic governance An introduction to and discussion on the debate on current issues and models Objectives To review current conceptual thinking To highlight key research questions To facilitate comparability of the proposed research projects 945-10:00 Coffee Break 10:00-11:00 -Increasing Young Women's Political Participation: Exploring gender mainstreaming through the lens of a gender and crisis prevention and recovery framework Objectives To address key issues of gender mainstreaming in Africa and the Middle East in the context of crisis prevention and recovery To contribute to and build upon the current conceptual thinking surrounding democratic governance and increasing women's political participation To facilitate comparability of the proposed research projects To bring in a global policy environment perspective 11:00-1:00-Research Methodologies and Risk Analysis Objectives To review approaches/methodologies To discuss possible synergies in approaches and methods To identify challenges and risks in meeting objectives How do the research teams make methodological decisions based on their risk analyses? 1:00 -2:00 Lunch 2:00-5:00-Strategies for Policy and Change Action Mini group discussions on expected research results, effective dissemination strategies and the comparability of anticipated outcomes Objectives To discuss anticipated challenges and expected research results How do researchers strategize at local, national, and regional levels?
To identify key stakeholders, targets, and end users at local, national, regional and international levels To share outreach experiences and review dissemination strategies To facilitate comparability of the proposed research projects Making an impact on the ground and developing networks Youth and the politics of the present 3:30-4:00 Coffee Break Day 3 9:00-12:00-Two Parallel Individual Project Sessions Individual Project Discussions Objectives To reflect on days 1 and 2 To bring the focus back to the IDRC research project proposal To discuss weaknesses/roadblocks and brainstorm ways to improve To identify elements of a comparative framework within the ESA and MENA region To discuss next steps and review logistics 12:00-1:00-Comparative framework Identify key threads at sub-regional level Find commonalities through which research teams can support one another Discuss weaknesses in proposals that need strengthening Solidify a core sub-regional network 1:00-2:00 Lunch 2:00 -4:00 Plenary discussion and Concluding discussion(s)