The Kenyatta University Open Learning for Women is situated at Moi Girls Secondary School in Marsabit town and has been operational since August 2008. The centre admits women, who have either attained the minimum university entry grade of C+, or have a C with P1 certificate.

In August 2008 Kenya Education Network Trust (KENET) received a Ford Foundation grant to develop instructional design capacity at KENET for the benefit of all member institutions.This was to support universities that are developing innovative multimedia teaching materials, including hosted e-learning content. The grant was to advance the KENET’s strategy of developing locally relevant content.

The two-year grant was awarded jointly with Kenyatta University and Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and is aimed at increasing access to university education of girls in the Marsabit area using ICT and traditional open learning centers. KENET will initially work closely with faculty in the School of Education, Kenyatta University to develop multimedia content that would be loaded onto the cheap laptops (e.g., the $300 laptops) and also on DVDs and e-learning platforms (e.g., Moodle).

This is the first time a Kenyan university will use ICT to support distance education it hoped that the project will be scaled up to increase access of students in rural and nomadic areas while improving quality of teaching materials.

The project aims demonstrate that ICT could transform teaching improve the learning outcomes of distance education students, particularly girls.

The instructional design center to be setup at KENET will be open to all member institutions of KENET after the initial pilot phase. In the long run, universities might want to setup their own autonomous instructional design centers and could learn from the experiences of the KENET pilot lab.