African Leadership University

African Leadership University is a world-class tertiary education institution that focuses on developing Africa’s future leaders by leveraging peer-to-peer learning, technology advances, real-world project based learning and skills development.


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Project Goal
Build an efficient learning platform that prioritizes peer-to-peer interaction and social learning, improving students’ online learning process through an enhanced collaborative learning experience.


Overall, contribute to ALU’s ambitious
goal of training 3 million entrepreneurial
and ethical leaders for Africa and the world by 2060.
Design Challenges
Build ALU’s
learning portal
on an Open edX
powered Learning
Management
System
Design a more
streamlined
navigation to
improve usability
Provide
students with
tools to track their
learning progress
and growth
Create a
platform more
focused on
cross-course
than course-specific
collaboration
Services Provided
General

Open edX Learning
Platform Installation
Advanced Software
Customization
Hosting
UI/UX Design
Project Management
Technical

Python Software
Development
Front-end Development
(HTML/CSS/JS)
Development Operations
Software Architecture
Technical Support
Approach
1. Iterative Process
We wanted to ensure that the product was progressing in a form that ALU had envisioned, so we kept them involved in the iterative product development process. We communicated with them periodically through standup meetings, status updates and collaborative tools such as Trello to gain feedback and direction.

2. Open edX configuration with Discourse
With experiences building a wide range of Open edX integrated platfroms, we
observed that Open edX currently does not have a suitable cross-course
collaboration capability and hence, decided to introduce such features into ALU’s learning platform for an enhanced learning experience.


After doing some research, we identified Discourse to be the most suitable platform for ALU’s edX learning integration and proceeded to build Discourse discussion boards for students to learn better through community-based knowledge exchange.
3. Use of Effective User Experience to encourage Active Learning
Landing Page
Discussion Dashboard
Leadership Dashboard
Results

Despite the constrained schedule, we were able to build an effective Open EdX online learning platform for ALU through several sprints and transparent communication. The platform allowed ALU to deliver its online courses more efficiently towards achieving its vision of creating the future leaders of Africa.
Students improved
their learning
through Cognitive
Presence by engaging
in a collaborative
learning environment
Teachers were able
to grade assignments
more easily with
the customized Staff
Graded Assignment
xBlock plugin
Learner Dashboard
enabled students
to learn from multiple
educational verticals
through progress tracking
Leadership Dashboard
helped students plan
their learning in a
goal-oriented manner
A more comprehensive
cross-course learning
experience with
redesigned theming
and navigation

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