Smart Classroom Launch

The International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) was launched by UNESCO-ICHEI together with 11 African and Asian HEIs, 9 Global EdTech enterprises and 4 HEIs in December 2019, with the vision to support the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Education 2030 Agenda by empowering the digital transformation of higher education systems. IIOE provides a multilingual online education platform, offering online courses and teacher training programmes in ICT competencies, covering areas such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, online and blended pedagogy. With over 30 partner HEIs worldwide, IIOE provides a holistic support ecosystem for the digital transformation of higher education. Partner HEIs engage in joint research, exchange best practices and information through meetings and webinars, joint development and mutual sharing of online curricula, supporting each other along the way to improve higher education quality, equity, inclusion and relevance. Since its launch, IIOE has benefited over 9,000 teachers in 135 countries worldwide.

The “IIOE National Centre” initiative was launched in 2021 as a response to the increasing demands of HEIs in developing countries to join IIOE after unprecedented changes in global higher education due to the Covid-19 pandemic. IIOE National Centre will serve as national and regional hub for higher education digital transformation through research, capacity building, online course construction and sharing, technical support and networking.

In 2022, UNESCO-ICHEI and IIOE National Centre will implement a wide array of activities to fulfill its mission. IIOE Platform 2.0 will be officially launched in October to support all 6 UN official languages, the development of dedicated IIOE Kenya National Centre page, and flexible operation of online course development and publishing. UNESCO-ICHEI will organize 16 trainings, 15 webinars and conferences, in the fields of AI, Cloud Computing, Block Chain, Education Policy, Teacher Professional Development, etc. to benefit more than 15,000 higher education workforces. With the support of IIOE Kenya National Centre, IIOE member institutions in Kenya will have access to all the diverse training programmes and courses, including the ones co-developed by UNESCO-ICHEI, partner HEIs and enterprises. IIOE Kenya National Centre will also join forces with UNESCO-ICHEI to conduct research on higher education digital transformation and to apply and localize the research outcome. UNESCO-ICHEI and IIOE National Centre also plan to pilot industry-based professional certification programmes in collaboration with IIOE partner enterprises, to improve graduate employability and construct a technology-enabled learning environment. A ‘Join IIOE’ mechanism has been co-developed by UNESCO-ICHEI and IIOE Kenya National Centre to facilitate HEIs in Kenya to join the IIOE network to benefit from all the resources and activities.