Five Ethiopia Public Universities Successfully Establish State-of-the-Art Multimedia Studios
As part of strengthening and enhancing the quality, accessibility, and resilience of higher education in Ethiopia, the e-SHE program, a partnership between the Ministry of Education, the Mastercard Foundation, Arizona State University, and ShayaShone, successfully established five state-of-the-art multimedia studios in public universities across Ethiopia, known as ‘Resource Centers’.
These resource centers are in Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Dire Dawa, Jimma, and Hawassa Universities. These studios aim to transform higher education through digital education to the host universities as well as 10 cluster member universities in their vicinity.
The National inauguration ceremony of these multimedia studios took place on March 4, 2024, at Addis Ababa University. Higher government officials, the Mastercard Foundation team, e-SHE partners, university leadership, and media were in attendance.
During the event, it was emphasized that such facilities will contribute to the enhancement of the quality of education and relevance, as well as ensuring education meets the labour market. It was also noted that there is a need to ensure resilience in education systems, especially with the latest experience posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it was noted that the establishment of these multimedia studios signifies a significant milestone in this regard.
Samuel Yalew Adela, Country Director of the Mastercard Foundation in Ethiopia, noted that the establishment of multimedia studios is one of the remarkable achievements of this program. The studios, he added, will avail resources for teachers to create or co-create their courses that will be used in the e-learning platform that makes learning and education more fixable.
Additionally, universities could also make use of these resources for regular and distance education programs. He reminded the need to utilize these resources and also focus on realizing the Learning Management System (LMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs).
At the event, a video showing the e-SHE program’s progress and the journey toward establishing and accomplishing the five multimedia studios was shown to the participants.Watch the video here.
About e-SHE
e-learning for strengthening higher education (e-SHE) is a partnership between the Ministry of Education, the Mastercard Foundation, and ShayaShone. It aims at enhancing the quality, accessibility, and resilience of higher education by leveraging digital technology across Ethiopian public universities. The project has four key components:
Building appropriate infrastructure (resource centers) integrated with the more extensive ICT system of public universities. Adopting and rolling a digital learning and education platform (Open edx).
Building capacities of 100 system administrators, 35,000 instructors, and 800,000 students in management, content development, and utilization of the envisaged learning management system. Supporting institutionalization and scaling up e-learning for higher education and beyond by designing appropriate national policies and strategies and policy dialogue.
