A systematic consultation: method and insights from an initial effort in defining decolonised and actor-led online learning for Africa. Paper presented in the symposium, "For the FATES of Africa: Socially-just ecosystems and life cycles in online learning for Sub-Saharan Africa" (Chair: Nora McIntyre)

McIntyre, Nora (2025) A systematic consultation: method and insights from an initial effort in defining decolonised and actor-led online learning for Africa. Paper presented in the symposium, "For the FATES of Africa: Socially-just ecosystems and life cycles in online learning for Sub-Saharan Africa" (Chair: Nora McIntyre). CIES 2025: Envisioning Education in a Digital Society, , Chicago, United States. 22 - 26 Mar 2025.

Abstract

Relevance: this paper is the overarching and focal collaborative work of the research group convening the proposed symposium. The objective of this paper is to co-develop a ‘how-to’ pipeline for protecting and championing responsible AI among Sub-Saharan African online learners: from the conception of the idea for an online learning tool, through the iterative design and development, until the moment of scale.

Theories: four cross-cutting features will underlie the development of our pipeline. First, principles of Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, Ethics, and Safety (FATES) will be cross-cutting in all areas of the pipeline, as will be the partnership’s identification of when the points of design, delivery, and decision-making are taking place during the pipeline. Second, strong references will be made during discussions to existing frameworks AIED (Holmes & Tuomi, 2022). Third, existing frameworks for sustainable integration of educational technology in Sub-Saharan African contexts (Mabila, van Biljon, et al. 2017; Ng & Nicholas, 2013) will be kept in mind. Fourth and finally, principles for maturity model development will be garnered and integrated into the pipeline development, as a framework for evaluating the ‘capabilities’ required of online learning with responsible AI (Alsheiabni et al., 2019; Fukas et al., 2021).

Context: we address significant gaps with our research. In contrast to frameworks emerging from tech giants and leading thinkers in digital technology with responsible AI (e.g., Facebook, 2021; Google, 2023), our work specifies step-by-step guidance in the form of a pipeline to directly address design, delivery, and decision-making (de Laat, 2021). In contrast to existing AIED guidance (Khosravi et al., 2022; Anthropic, Bai et al., 2022) and communities (Holmes et al., 2022), our project goes beyond the crude distinction between the Western and non-Western boundaries to focus on one specific non-Western region: namely, Sub-Saharan Africa, with representation from three Sub-Saharan African countries within the research group itself—Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Africa.

Mode of inquiry: we are conducting a comprehensive and systematic programme of consultation and synergy across the edtech ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa, with methodological elements taken from public participation (e.g., dell’Olio et al., 2018) and the Grounded Delphi Method (e.g., Howard, 2018), as appropriate. Discussions started within the research group as a collaborative partnership of invited experts. Consultations have then extended to member groups in the public: learners, educators, community members, non-profits, policymakers, and academics from outside our international research partnership.

Findings: while the systematic consultations are ongoing, we already find emphatic consensus around key areas that the pipeline for responsible AI in online learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. We find that equitable online learning design and delivery must be people-centred with affected actors at the centre: this entails a plurality of voices for strengthened representation to redress historical inequities. Deployment of AI must be ethical, with AI solutions being culturally responsive and adaptive to local requirements. Throughout, infrastructural obstacles must be kept in sight, and capacity building unforgotten. Meanwhile, adaptive learning systems are starting to make offerings available that are genuinely affordable and sustainable.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Nora McIntyre

Download statistics