STRATEGY FOR A SUSTAINED QUALITY DELIVERY MODE OF ODL PROGRAMMES FOR
MASSIVE ENROLLMENTS AND E-LEARNING: THE CASE FOR ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY

STRATEGY FOR A SUSTAINED QUALITY DELIVERY MODE OF ODL PROGRAMMES FOR
MASSIVE ENROLLMENTS AND E-LEARNING: THE CASE FOR ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY

GABRIEL KABANDA

The market dynamics in distance education has precipitated phenomenal growth opportunities in enrollments and
e-learning. The purpose of the paper was to develop a strategy for sustained quality delivery mode of distance
education progammes that precipitate massive enrollments and e-learning in an open and distance learning (ODL)
institution using Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) as a case study. There is an increase in public accountability for
higher education which compels institutions to demonstrate quality within the programmes and processes, including
those provided online. The strategy for massive enrollments and e-learning is developed and this includes a mobile
strategy and mobile web framework. How the landscape of quality assurance has been changed by the emergence of
MOOCs is discussed. The methodology used is qualitative and focus groups were used as research designs in the case
study of Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU). Triangulation and peer review was used to test the validity of the
data. Strategic directions were developed to inform the new key result areas, goals, objectives, strategies and priorities
for the university for the period 2015-2020

International Journal of Higher Education

2014