Did you know e-learning is at Africa’s fingertips?

Across Africa, educational infrastructure cannot meet the current or future needs of the general population.  While higher education participation rates in many high-income countries are well over 50%, in sub-Saharan Africa they are in most cases below 5%.  As debates and demands around free education continue, online learning presents a welcome and affordable solution for students throughout the continent.

Only two months after going live, our pioneering online education portal and mobile application boasts over 385,000 visitors, searching for trusted, professional courses, programs and degrees.  It’s a humbling reminder of how hungry Africa is for quality education and eLearnAfrica.com is putting e-learning at Africa’s fingertips.

We launched eLearnAfrica as an online marketplace for education, making it easier for students throughout Africa to search for and enrol in hundreds of online courses, online degrees, and professional certifications from some of the best universities in the world.  We recognise that the number of potential students in Africa is vastly outpacing currently available facilities, and there’s a critical need for smarter online resources to empower young people and professionals with trusted educational resources.  eLearnAfrica is helping to provide a highly skilled workforce that fuels the engine for increasing economic growth and prosperity.

We have been overwhelmed by the response from people who are hungry for quality online content.  It’s encouraging that we have an answer to a clear need in the market.   More and more trusted content providers continue to approach us to include their programs, degrees and offerings to African high school graduates who cannot study in formal institutions like universities or vocational colleges, largely due to a lack of funding and resources.

What is eLearning and how does it work?

eLearnAfrica.com is an innovative web portal and mobile application built to assist Africans search for and access the best online educational courses, online degrees and professional certifications from trusted sources around the world.  Its mission is to make learning opportunities available to everyone through an easy-to-use website and mobile app. In addition, the portal and app are highly intuitive through a content discovery solution that delivers personalised recommendations tailored to each user’s preferences.

eLearnAfrica has partnered with some of the leading online course providers to make available courses from some of the best universities in the world.  These courses use video and other online resources, and students take a short test to progress to the next class.  Most of these courses can be taken for free, and some courses also offer a verified certificate of completion (with a modest administration fee).

eLearnAfrica works with both edX and FutureLearn to offer a huge variety of courses to its primarily African audience. EdX, the nonprofit online learning destination founded by Harvard University and MIT, offers hundreds of courses from the world’s top institutions, such as top-ranked Wharton Business School, the University of California, Berkeley and more.

FutureLearn, the social learning platform wholly owned by the Open University, offers over 4.5 million learners access to free online courses from world-leading UK and international universities, centres of research excellence and specialist education providers like the British Council, Creative Skill set, and European Space Agency.

To make sure that Africans can take classroom-style, on-demand video-based professional certification programs, eLearnAfrica has joined with industry leader itSM Mentor, which has over 1400 classes in close to 175 specialised areas.  Students can quickly become certified by mastering Microsoft Office, learning accounting, project management, or information technologies.

Students interested in earning a degree online, can find Associates and Bachelors programmes in Business Administration, Computer Science and Health Science and even a Masters programme in Business Administration from the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, US-accredited online university, University of the People (UoPeople).

To access eLearnAfrica, go to www.elearnafrica.com or download the free mobile application in the Google Play store by searching for eLearnAfrica.

Note from Inventive Africa

Thank you to Brook Negussie, CEO of eLearnAfrica for sharing this fantastic platform with us and our readers. What they haven’t mentioned is that man of the courses are free! Online education is potentially changing the traditional learning methods in Africa. Students can now supplement their learning online and the time will come when those that don’t do this will be left behind in the job market. What will also be interesting is when rural communities are able to learn new vocational skills online. Currently, most of the information on these platforms is academic, or regarding learning computer skills and programming. Soon, plumbers, electricians and even nurses (this is already been done by Eneza Education) will be learning their skills online. Creating a larger skilled workforce.

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