Full story

Blended Learning Uptake During #FeesMustFall Campaign

Newsletters

Latest News

Current Awareness

Open Saide

Building on Saide’s core philosophical intentions associated with “open learning”, “open educational resources” and “open software”, Saide makes strategic use of its existing assets within a wide variety of contemporary technological environments to support and enhance future African educational developments. Our Programme and Course Design Guide and Learning Design with Technology underpin all our resources and services.

Read more

About Us

Our Mission

Saide is committed to the process of transformation of education and training so to increase equitable and meaningful access to knowledge, skills and learning through the adoption of open learning principles, distance education methods and educational technology.

Our Vision

A society in which all people value, have access to, and succeed in lifelong education that meets national and regional priorities in the context of the global knowledge economy.

Governance

Saide is a non-profit organization that is registered as an educational trust (Registration Number: 1355/92). It is also registered as a Non Profit Organisation (041-137 NPO). We currently have a level one B-BBEE status. Saide’s Trustees are: Mr Sedupe Ramokgopa (Co-chairperson), Mr Siven Maslomoney (Co-chairperson), Professor Mary Metcalfe, Professor Shireen Motala, Professor Ahmed Bawa and Ms Linda Vilakazi-Tselane. Saide's Director is Ms Jennifer Glennie.

Funding

Saide was initially entirely supported by the European Union. From 1995, Saide began to diversify its funding. In early 1997, Saide turned its attention to its financial sustainability around different sources of income: project grants with agreed deliverables, commissioned project income, general income from funding agencies (organizational grants), other (including interest, royalties, use of administrative services etc). The balance among these types has shifted dramatically, with no organizational grants since 2005. Saide is committed to balancing the above sources of income to ensure that it retains a strong committment to its mission and is not driven entirely by the 'market'.


What we do

Saide is not an implementing agency but acts as an advocate, catalyst, and facilitator to bring about change in existing educational practices. Saide is in a unique position to facilitate networks and provide advice on the planning and implementation of distance education and the evaluation, development and sharing of courses and materials. Educational providers in South Africa and neighbouring countries have increasingly sought Saide's assistance in planning and evaluating their programmes, courses and systems and supporting them by facilitating professional development for their staff.

Saide is a non-governmental organization conducting projects throughout South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Saide's task is to contribute to the development of new models of open learning, including the use of distance education methods, educational technology and open educational resources. These should accord with and take forward the values, principles, and goals of the evolving education systems in the sub-Saharan Africa. 

Staff members

Our Services

Saide offers a number of services accross all educational sectors - higher education, teacher education, early childhood development, schooling, technical and vocational education and community education. We do not deliver education programmes, but work with educators, programmes and institutions as well as government to enable successful open learning for all.

Programme and Course Design

Programme, course and materials design and development is based on the key principles of Open Learning, whether delivery is fully online, face to face or a blend somewhere in between.

Materials Design and Development

Saide works with collaborative teams to design and develop materials that facilitate access to learning. We encourage the use of effective teaching methodologies, in the context of coherent programmes and courses.

Open Education Resources

At its core, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) describes educational resources that are freely available for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees.

Policy Development

Assist in developing policy in distance education and open learning and the use of technology. Contribute to policy processes from this perspective.Conduct systemic reviews of distance education provision and the use of technology in education.

Appropriate Use of Technology

Research the use of technology in education and encourage and support appropriate use of technology in education

Quality Criteria and Systems

Saide promotes quality educational delivery by supporting institutions in developing approprite quality assurance systems and through quality assurance capacity building.

Evaluation and Research

Work with the client to develop the evaluation plan, including appropriate indicators. Collect and analyse both quantitative and qualitative information systematically and sensitively. Feed the information back to the client to improve the initiative.

Build Capacity and Share Knowledge

Build capacity in all areas of distance education. Refine understandings of open learning, distance education and the use of technology in education which is shared through our websites, newsletters and online catalogue. Network with the community of distance educators.

Software as a Service

Software as a service (SaaS; pronounced /sæs/) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as "on-demand software", and was formerly referred to as "software plus services". Saide's SaaS support open access to offer online software to our partner institutions.

Projects

Since inception, Saide has developed and sustained an excellent reputation for the quality and effectiveness of its work, and for its ability to manage a wide range of projects. The project pages provide information on our projects, related services and staff involved. Where possible we include links to resources and outputs related to these projects. The search facility  can also be used to look for our resources.

The aim of the African Storybook (ASb) initiative is to support and promote literacy in the languages of Africa using digital storybooks made available through openly licensed digital storybooks distributed by means of web-based Internet and mobile app services.

THe African Storybook Initiative is recognised as an official partner of the Department of Basic Education's Read2Lead Campaign.

Participating in a consortium in a multi-sectoral teacher education project that aims to professionalise the sector by developing a standardised framework for the training of ECD practitioners working in Birth to Four.

Acting as a backbone organization to work with five universities and the university sector as a whole to promote student success. The project is funded by the Kresge Foundation and the partner institutions are the Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University, University of the Free State, University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Contact

Mailing List



Join our mailing list

Address

  • Saide
    14th Floor,
    19 Ameshoff Street,
    Braamfontein Johannesburg,
    South Africa
    -26.187392, 28.037548
  • Email
    info@saide.org.za
  • Phone
    +27 11-403-2813