Going global — Lessons learned from developing an online master´s in ICT4D

Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) is a rapidly expanding field where successful outcomes require interdisciplinary collaborations. Stakeholders involved in ICT4D projects have a wide variety of educational backgrounds and ICT4D training. Literature and education on ICT4D has been compared to a lost sheep but currently there exists seven master programmes in ICT4D at university level (University of Colorado, Boulder, Berkeley University of California, University of Cape Town, Royal Holloway University of London, University of East London, University of Manchester and Kobe Institute of Computing). However, none of these existing programmes are entirely available online and possible to complete by distance studies only. The aim of the present study is to analyse and discuss the needs and requirements for a master´s programme in ICT4D given entirely online as distance education. Applicants to a new online master´s programme developed at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University have responded to an online questionnaire on what they find important in an ICT4D programme. Findings show that even though online education has been around for quite a while, there are still a lot of issues to address and globally oriented distance education does have particular pedagogical, cultural, administrative and technical challenges. The lack of interdisciplinary programmes in ICT4D is evident and we definitely think that there is a need for a new master´s programme that is given in distance mode only. Furthermore, our vision is to open up the programme in the line of open access principles in a near future when course content and pedagogical ideas have been evaluated more in detail.