Message from the Director
RETRIDOL is dedicated to capacity building and research into open, distance, and eLearning (ODeL) in the West Africa sub-region and beyond. Hosted at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), in collaboration with its international partner, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), RETRIDOL caters for the training needs of various cadres of staff in the flexible, distance, and eLearning sector.
For close to two decades, RETRIDOL has been involved in conducting training workshops (using online, in-person and hybrid formats), developing academic programmes, online courses, and research activities for NOUN, and other single and dual-mode universities and distance learning institutes in the region. To assure world-class training, the Institute has a dedicated faculty, access to a pool of ODeL experts and experienced practitioners to meet your specific training needs.
For more than a decade, RETRIDOL has been promoting research in ODL through its journal, West African Journal of Open, Flexible, and eLearning (WAJOFEL) -the only open-access journal dedicated to flexible, open, distance and eLearning in the West Africa sub-region. Through its ODL Discourse series, RETRIDOL has been providing opportunities for the dissemination of research findings and for discussions among practitioners from around the world to meet to have a conversation, and proffer contextualised solutions to issues pertaining to ODL theory and practice.
As we look to the future, we are excited to leverage the affordances of technology in expanding the scope, reach, and impact of our capacity building and research programmes in the West Africa sub-region and beyond.
I invite you to go through our site to learn more about our programmes and activities.
What We Do
Research
The institute is mandated to initiate, carry out and support research in all areas of open and distance learning and its ancillary fields. While the institute facilitates research into open and distance learning as a field enquiry, it is also involved in promoting discipline-based researches which have implications for open and distance learning. The institute is also required to provide opportunities for the dissemination of research outcomes through is dedicated website, newsletter and regular journal
Programmes
The institute has the mandate to plan and implement programmes to meet the training and capacity development needs of practitioners of open and distance learning administration, technical/technological and academic within the West African Sub-region
Training
The institute is expected to provide necessary training in research and provide support to early career researchers and experienced academics to pursue their research. To achieve its mandate, the institute has been focusing on meeting the training needs of open and distance learning institutions including single mode, dual mode, consortium and solely electronic mode in the West African sub region. This way, it intends building a network of open and distance learning trainers and core of professionals in ODL in the sub-region
Our Reach
Workshops
institutions
Participants
Our Events
Monthly ODL Discourse
The RETRIDOL Monthly Discourse series is a platform for sharing ideas based on research, expertise and even experiences around the topics that are related to Open and Distance Learning and e-Learning and related issues.
Workshops
One of our objectives is to build capacity of West African Higher Education Institutions in Open and Distance Learning by training their staff. To achieve this, we organize workshops to equip practitioners of ODL to successful navigate the current realities in ODL.
WAJOFEL
Wajofel is a peer-reviewed journal which exists to encourage and disseminate high-quality research in Open and Distance Learning (ODL), including e-Learning. This includes research in all disciplines where Open and Distance Learning approaches are used for teaching and learning.
