Our Portfolio

NBA aims to contribute to improving education in developing world contexts by advancing open, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions to educational challenges. Through our work, we strive to create space for people to engage and connect, and to leverage diversity in pursuit of our vision.

  • National Department of Health - Knowledge Hub (KH)

    NBA is supporting the national Department of Health (nDoH) in developing and implementing the Knowledge Hub (KH), a central, electronic interface that promotes easy access to relevant professional development opportunities. 
  • Department of Higher Education and Training

    NBA is currently managing the development of curriculum content and open learning materials for the Occupational Certificate: Electrician Programme (OCEP) for the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET has selected...

  • OER Africa

    OER Africa is a ground-breaking initiative established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide). As a lead partner in this initiative, NBA has been responsible for much of the conceptualization of OER Africa, including preparing...

  • UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers

    In 2013, NBA was contracted by UNESCO to support the development and review of the national ICT strategies of Kenya, Indonesia and Oman for the use of the UNESCO ICT CFT harnessing OER. NBA was also required to support the development of national...

Content and Course Development
Information Technology and Knowledge Management
Research and Consulting
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  • NBA is currently managing the development of curriculum content and open learning materials for the Occupational Certificate: Electrician Programme (OCEP) for the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET has selected the Occupational Certificate: Electrician programme as the first programme to be developed and delivered through the National Open Learning System (NOLS). This choice is judicious for three primary reasons:
    1. The skills it develops are in high demand and important for economic development and growth; 
    2. The nature of the programme, combining theoretical, practical and work-based components, provides a useful opportunity to explore and define the practical curriculum and content implications of delivering programmes through the NOLS; and
    3. The development of this programme, based on open learning principles and hence providing multiple learning pathways, will help with the phasing out the parallel and less efficient programmes.

    View the developed materials online

    Join the programme

    For exemplar materials visit http://dhet-tvet-lms.co.za/course/view.php?id=30  

    Username: guestuser

    Password: guest

     

  • LEAD, the legal education division of the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA), is in the process of redesigning its vocational training programme in order to harness distance education and blended learning methods to supplement, and in some instances replace, contact training. LEAD invited NBA to support and guide the organization in making better use of technology for legal teaching, learning and training. NBA provided a series of face-to-face workshops to guide LEAD content developers in the process of creating content suitable for an online environment, and also supported LEAD in developing and writing policy documentation for the implementation of blended learning within the organization. 

  • In partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education, the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG) is administering an online information and communications technology (ICT) literacy programme for approximately 10,000 teachers in Gauteng province. Given NBA's extensive experience in working with the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT) and implementing similar projects throughout Africa and the developing world, the team was invited to assist MGSLG in adapting existing open educational resources (OER) and developing new South Africa-specific content. In total, 56 units comprising 80 notional hours were developed. NBA assisted the MGSLG in training the facilitators to administer the course and developed the pilot programme, which was successfully concluded in the latter half of 2017. This course has now been accredited by the South African Council for Educators (SACE), which means that users will have the opportunity to earn points towards their continuing professional development (CPD) requirements by completing this course.

     

  • In 2012, the National Institute for the Deaf (NID) was awarded a grant by the National Skills Fund (NSF) to develop blended learning occupational programmes for the Deaf and Persons with Hearing Loss. DK Strategic Services (DKSS) and NBA subsequently won the tender and were contracted to undertake context research and produce relevant occupational training programmes – using a blended learning model – for the delivery of learning and teaching to the Deaf and Persons with Hearing Loss attending NID College. The initial research highlighted the immense potential of blended learning and open educational resources (OER) to respond to the unique needs of the Deaf and Persons with Hearing Loss.  
     
    NBA was responsible for overall project management and creation of the following programmes:
    • Links4Life Programme; 
    • Communication at Work Programme;
    • Care Practioner Programme; and
    • Higher Certificate in Education (HCE) Programme.
     
    The primary aim of the programmes was to equip the Deaf and Persons with Hearing Loss with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values that will enable them to experience a high likelihood of success in post-school study and for finding employment. 

  • NBA was contracted by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) to develop video segments to support the Roger Federer Foundation’s professional development course for educators in Zambia. The video segments complement study units on improved teaching methodology and were filmed in rural community schools in Zambia. The videos are accessed using a tablet shared by teachers at the community schools.

  • NBA developed a short learning programme designed to expose university heads of department (HoDs) to the potential benefits of embracing both technology and the open education movement in the revision of courses. The programme was built on the MyUNISA platform (SAKAI) and incorporated an interactive approach to studying using learning management system (LMS) tools to encourage peer interactions. The course also encouraged HoDs to embark on a research programme and provided advice on researching and producing publishable papers on the subject of scholarship.