DESIGNED THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR A VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY IMPLEMENTATION IN AN AFRICAN ENVIRONMENT: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW PAPER

In the past two decades, the concept of establishing a virtual university in Africa was seen as important. This was because virtual university has been revealed in other continents as being effective and efficient way to support university students in the learning process through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Some African countries had shown interest in introducing a virtual university. This is evidenced in the African Virtual University Project of the World Bank has implemented in 21 African countries. However, the delivery of degrees and diploma courses in the university faced with difficulties that forced some organizations such as Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to withdraw from the partnership. Moreover, there is paucity of literature on frameworks that may guide well the implementation of virtual university in an African environment. Therefore, there is a need to research on the above mentioned challenges and literature paucity. A systematic approach was embraced to establish a rigorous literature review that has grounded this study. The paper proposes a framework that comprises four main factors that help implement a virtual university in Africa. The factors include Tools and technological infrastructure; Pedagogical and learner specific issues; Evaluation; and the African environment. These four main categories with its sub themes are considered as pillars of a virtual university implementation. The research is relevant as it provides insight into considering the appropriate teaching strategies, learning paradigms, tools and technologies in support of implementing a virtual university in an African environment.