Introducing Blended Learning in Universities in West Africa: A Summative Evaluation of the Partnership for Blended and Enhanced Learning West Africa Programme

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Partnership in Enhanced and Blended Learning West Africa Programme (PEBL-WA). The programme was implemented by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) working in partnership with Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), and The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). Running from September 2021 to August 2024, the programme aimed to enhance educational capacities and foster regional collaboration among twelve universities in Ghana and Nigeria, focusing on the adoption and integration of blended learning (BL). The central purpose of the PEBL West Africa summative evaluation is to find out to what extent the intended outcome "Increased flexibility in West African Higher Education systems to expand capacity to meet increasing graduate learning demands without eroding quality" has been achieved. The evaluation has 5 specific objectives: (1) To assess achievement of the programme toward meeting expected results, based on the Theory of Change (TOC); (2) To identify the extent to which the programme contributed to enhancing capacity of participating universities to implement and improve BL provision; (3) To identify the extent to which the PEBL-WA university network established by the programme improved the overall and University specific BL provision; (4) To evaluate the impact/change in partner universities and how the programme has contributed to these changes (development of policies, institutionalization of capacity building activities, etc.); and (5) To draw lessons that inform future programming and assess accountability status for further learning. [This report was co-produced with International Network for Advancing Science and Policy (INASP).]