The real potential of ICT is the way it changes learners to become autonomous in their learning process. E-learning also plays a crucial role in today's life and in modern education. Its importance lies in the fact that people are finding that e-learning can make a remarkable change in teaching/ or learning: to how quickly they master a skill; how…

Tobacco has been an agricultural staple from the time of the first recorded European encounter with the plant in the fifteenth century. The pervasive nature of its cultivation and consumption has made tobacco one of the most profitable crops in world agricultural history. This case study examines the role of tobacco in the global marketplace with…

Sierra Leone, a country the size of South Carolina on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, was once known as the "Athens of West Africa." Today, the Republic is recovering from a 10-year war that ended in 2002. When the author, Alusine Kanu, who holds a doctorate of arts in community college education from Virginia's George Mason University…

In a study by the World Bank in 1993, "Skills for Productivity: Vocational Education and Training in Developing Countries," researchers found that skill training in the rural and urban informal sectors in developing countries may contribute more to the alleviation of poverty than training for modern sector wage employment. They also…

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasingly having pervasive role and presence in the educational milieu as it continues to shape all aspects of our lives. Numerous reform projects have been in place aiming to infuse ICT across education systems. Teachers are widely believed to be the key agents of any educational change.…

The change brought about in the networked information environment is deep and structural, in a way that has the potential to empower cultures left out of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, the author stresses that it is fundamental for individuals to understand, from a developing nation's perspective, how the Internet changes the capacity of…

The purpose of this study was to assess differences between Nigerian junior and senior preservice teachers' science teaching efficacy beliefs. Data in this study were collected from a total number of 221 preservice teachers enrolled in junior and senior secondary science teacher education programs in Nigeria using Science Teaching Efficacy Belief…

Many universities in developing economies were established as public universities to provide training for manpower requirements of the developing state. In the recent past there has been a shift in emphasis of preferred economic drivers towards practices common to knowledge based economies in developing countries. This move has compelled Higher…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the open access and open source movement in the digital library world. Design/methodology/approach: A review of key developments in the open access and open source movement is provided. Findings: Open source software and open access to research findings are of great use to scholars in developing…

In most sub-Sahara African countries, distance education is delivered using print materials complemented by a few face-to-face sessions. The approach is associated with a myriad of challenges some of which can be addressed by appropriately selected e-learning technologies based on the context in which they need to be used. This study was designed…

Many countries are challenged by the need to build both capacity and quality simultaneously in order to meet the accelerating needs of their society. Should what already exists be renovated, or should new institutions be created? Innovate from within or from without? Or perhaps some combination of both? In the U.S., postsecondary…

Research in the industrialized world shows that the influence of family background on educational attainment has remained stable or declined over time. In contrast, very little is known about the developing world. Using high-quality data sets and a standard protocol, this article offers a comparative analysis of trends in educational…

Since higher education reforms were started in the mid-1980s, higher education in China has experienced significant transformations. Changes have not only been revealed by the increase in numbers of undergraduates, but also by a significant expansion in postgraduate education in mainland China. In order to enhance its global competitiveness, the…

In the last half a century an extensive cooperation between China and African countries have been launched, of which exchange and cooperation in education is one of the most important forms. In this aspect, China has played an important role in student exchange and education programs for African educational officials. However, African countries…

This paper and the four commissioned works on which it is based are guided by the important question: How can we start valuing practices and outcomes of teaching and learning that are difficult to reduce to numbers? As the process of developing indicators for the Post-2015 education targets unfolds, some of the targets are at risk of being dropped…