E-learning Africa

In September 2024, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) came together to deliver a four-part webinar series, focusing on Heritage Digitization and Archaeo-Informatics. As the digital world continues to transform industries globally, this series aimed to equip young professionals from Nigeria and West Africa working in archaeology and heritage management with the tools they need to become familiar with these technologies.

Key Objectives

The webinar series had several core objectives:

• Introduction to Key Concepts: Participants were introduced to foundational aspects of heritage digitization and archaeo-informatics, emphasizing how digital tools can revolutionize archaeology and heritage preservation.
• Practical Tools: The series offered hands-on learning with tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 3D modeling, and digital object databases.
• Career Development: By showcasing real-world applications and career opportunities in digital heritage management, the series inspired participants to explore new professional paths.
• Inspiration and Empowerment: Personal stories from industry experts motivated participants to take an active role in shaping the future of heritage preservation.

A Diverse and Engaged Audience

The webinars were targeted at 100 participants selected from tertiary institutions across Nigeria and West Africa, with a focus on students and young professionals interested in archaeology and heritage management. The sessions were designed to balance theoretical insights with practical skills, ensuring that participants could engage with real-world digital tools.

Despite being an online event, the webinars saw significant participation, with 70% attendance in the first session, followed by strong engagement throughout the remaining three sessions.

Deep Dive Into the Sessions

The four webinars, held over two weeks, covered various aspects of digital heritage:

1. Introduction to Heritage Digitization and Archaeo-Informatics: This session laid the foundation, presenting key tools and showcasing the collaborative efforts between MOWAA and DAI. Participants were introduced to MOWAA’s digitization project of the Benin Bronzes, alongside DAI’s work in the edo|cation¹ project.

2. Heritage Digitization: Participants gained insights into preserving cultural heritage through digital records. Practical exercises, such as artifact digitization, were a key focus of this session.

3. Archaeo-Informatics: This session went deeper into the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), demonstrating how tools like QGIS can be used to map and analyze archaeological sites.

4. Industry Applications of Digital Tools: The final session featured case studies on how augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are used to engage audiences and enhance the visitor experience. Presentations from industry leaders, such as Pedro Pereira from byAR and Pankaj Manchanda from Augtraveler, provided valuable insights into how these technologies are transforming heritage tourism and education.

The Path Forward: An Evergreen Course

Building on the success of the series, a proposal is underway to create an evergreen course on heritage digitization and archaeo-informatics. This online, self-paced course will be hosted on the iDAI platform, making the content accessible to a wider audience and extending the impact of the webinars.

Why This Matters

As we stand at the crossroads of tradition and innovation, initiatives like the MOWAA & DAI Webinar Series are important because they provide young professionals with the digital skills needed to manage and preserve cultural heritage. It’s not just about learning new tools; it’s about preparing for the future of heritage management.

By teaching participants practical skills like GIS and 3D modeling, the series has helped build a foundation for digital heritage management in Nigeria and West Africa. With more educational initiatives planned, including a module dedicates to Nigeria in our ONLAAH MOOC, this initiative will continue to support the development of digital literacy in the heritage field

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge MOWAA Outreach & Learning team, led by John Osawe (Outreach & Learning Coordinator) and Iwinosa Oyakhire (Programme Associate), that played a fundamental role in ensuring the series’ success. Femi Johnson from MOWAA Digitisation Heritage Lab and Jan Huber, the specialist in archeo-informatics of the edo|cation team. Their joint efforts, knowledge and sharing skills were crucial in making the webinars possible and an utter success. Finally, to Pedro Pereira and Pankaj Machanda, our guests’ experts, for sharing with us their projects and experience.

By Sofia Fonseca

¹The DAI edo|cation project is a three-year (2022–2024) initiative focused on the study of the Benin Moats using tools like GIS, photogrammetry, and 3D modeling, while also training professionals in these advanced technologies for archaeology and heritage management.

We are celebrating the first anniversary of the Online Learning on African Archaeology and Heritage (ONLAAH) MOOC, and what a year it’s been! Launched in May 2023 on the UAB-Coursera platform, our ‘Archaeology and Heritage of Africa’ course has already engaged over 1,600 students worldwide.

There are some key achievements I would like to share with you:

1. Global Reach: We’ve attracted students from across the globe, with particularly strong engagement from African learners.
2. Diverse Content: Our comprehensive curriculum, developed by 30 expert teachers, covers everything from archaeological methods to heritage management.
3. Innovative Partnerships: As part of the DAI edo|cation project in Nigeria, our MOOC has been integrated into a collaboration with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), bridging online learning with real-world archaeological practice through their flagship project ‘Unearth: Discovering Archaeology Together’.
4. Different presentations during the year, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Zaria University, in Nigeria, Benin City, also in Nigeria, and Gotha and Cologne, both in Germany, together with some future publications will bring the MOOC into an even larger public.

Looking Ahead

As we celebrate this milestone, we are excited about the future of the ONLAAH project and its MOOC. We are committed to continuously improving the course content, incorporating the more research and technological advancements in the field. We also plan to introduce new modules and themes to enhance the learning experience further.

Our mission remains steadfast: to educate, inspire, and empower individuals to appreciate and preserve Africa’s rich archaeological and cultural heritage. We thank our students, instructors, and partners for their unwavering support and dedication. Here’s to another year of discovery, learning, and growth!

Happy Anniversary, ONLAAH MOOC!

After much hard work and dedication from all the participants involved in the execution of the online course on Archaeology and Heritage of Africa, we have some exciting news!

Our course has been launched by UAB-Coursera, and you can access it through the ONLAAH platform using this link: Course on Archaeology and Heritage of Africa – ONLAAH

This course is the result of a collaborative effort among 30 teachers, researchers, archaeologists, and heritage management specialists who have devoted their work to the archaeology and heritage of Africa. We will be forever grateful to each and every one of them:

Tilman Lenssen-Erz, Goodman Gwasira, Philipp von Rummel, Anneli Ekblom, Oriol Vicente Campos, Décio Muianga, Jörg Linstädter, Jordi Estevez Escalera, Michèle Dinies, Alexa Höhn, Roxane Matias, Ashton Sinamai, Friederike Jesse, Mussa Raja, Gothardine Garoes (Gwen), Martin Kehl, Alfons Uwuseb, Nuno Bicho, Sabrina Stempfle, Cláudia Umbelino, Gregor Baden, Sónia Gabriel, Stephan Schiffels, Tertius Oeamseb (Terry), João Cascalheira, Sofia Fonseca, Alma Nankela, Esther Gil Maña, Giacoma Petrullo, Johanna Sigl,

The course is divided into four modules that take you from an introductory module, pass through a second module dedicated to methodology, proceed to a third module on Heritage Management, and conclude with a final module containing case studies where the knowledge acquired during the course can be seen being applied in the field.

We hope you will join and enjoy the course learning together with students from around the world.

Let us know your thoughts and if you have any suggestions on subjects or on how to improve the course, please, let us know!

We have some exciting news for all of you: a new Logo and a new YouTube channel!

Regarding our logo and new image, it was created by Helder Rodrigues, a Portuguese designer from Faro, Portugal.

In Helder’s words:

The symbol, a spiral in the shape of the African continent, is representative of rock art that can be found in Kisii, southwest Kenya. The Wordmark, an acronym for “Online Learning on African Archaeology & Heritage “ is set in small caps for a friendly and inviting approach.

On our YouTube channel you can find the first season of our podcast. In there we have the 6 episodes with

We are also working on the transcript of the episodes to make our podcast more accessible and easy to follow.

A new season will start in April, so stay tuned!

October was another complicated month with some countries entering again in lockdown and many others following those measures at the beginning of November. 

The challenges 2020 has brought to all of us are enormous and more then ever is important to keep a close connection with our family, friends and colleagues. Maybe is not possible to have a physical connection, but we can keep a close (virtual) connection. We need each other more then ever. 

In the Onlaah project, we have been connecting with our teachers by interviewing them to our Podcast! So we have new episodes to share with you!

Episode 4 with Décio Muianga, from Eduardo Mundlane University, in Mozambique. Décio is our teacher in the MOOC presenting, together with Jörg Linstädter, the Changalane Case Study, and is also one of the presenters in the indoor videos.

Episode 5 with João Cascalheira, from the ICArEHB research Center at the Algarve University, in Portugal. João is our teacher on the class on Archaeological Prospection and the creator of the apps “Archeo Survey” and “Lithics on the Go”.

And finally, Episode 6, with Johanna Sigl, from the German Archaeological Institute. Johanna is an Egyptologist and archaeozoologist and is giving the “Introduction to Archaeology” in our MOOC.

Décio, João and Johanna are part of the outstanding and generous team of teachers bringing our MOOC to live.

Course development and partnerships

Regarding our course, we have been busy organizing more classes and start learning about the software we will be using to record the indoor videos: it’s called OBS Studio and will permit to record remotely with the UAB-Coursera team. 

We are also working on a new partnership with The Archaeological Institute of America and looking for more collaboration with African Institutions and Universities.

Whit this objective in mind, on the 28th of October, we attended a meeting to established new contacts with colleagues from Namibia. We were invited by our partners from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) to participate on the Virtual Namibia Partners’ Day with the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

On the 18th of November we will be at the same event with colleagues from Botswana.

So, don’t forget, listen and subscribe to the Onlaah podcast and spread the word! Subscribe also to our newsletter at www.onlaah.com and follow us in Facebook and Instagram.

More then ever, let’s stay connected!

This year has probably been the most challenging of our lives as a collective and, without any doubt, resilience and adaptation have been essential to keep on moving forward in a good spirit.

Between the 25th and the 31st of August the European Association of Archaeologist (EAA), organized their ever complete virtual meeting. The passage of the EAA annual meeting to a virtual event is the perfect example of the times we are living and how the organization followed the principles of resilience and adaptation! And we have to say it was a huge success! Congratulations to all!

On the 26th of August, the #314 session entitled Sensitizing and Engaging the Public: the Role of Online Learning in Archaeology and Heritage was presented and coordinated by Sofia Fonseca from ONLAAH, Ben Thomas from the Archaeological Institute of America and Aurélia Basterrechae, from ArchaeoConcept.

We create this session following up the 2018 session at EAA Barcelona, entitled Traditional and Alternative New Media: Different Ways to Communicate Upon Archaeology. We feel more than ever that the discussion around new ways to communicate and the role of online learning to educate on archaeology and heritage must go on and in fact, go even deeper.

Bring our voice to a larger and new public using tools like storytelling, YouTube, podcasting, social media, online courses, should be on our radars. Because if we don’t bring our voice to the table, we will be missing the opportunity to educate and share knowledge and more than that, our place in the society will increasingly losing value or as Eleni Gizas said, quoting John M. Fritz and Fred T. Plog (1970):

“(…) We suspect that unless archaeologists find ways to make their research increasingly relevant to the modern world, the modern world will find itself increasingly capable of getting along without archaeologists .”

Indeed food for thought!

The EAA recorded the sessions and as soon as the recording is available we will share it with all of you.

The ONLAAH podcast is here!

For some time we have been thinking of new ways of communicating archaeology. Already in 2018, at the EAA, in Barcelona, we organized a session entitled “Traditional and (Alternative) New Media: Different Ways to Communicate upon Archaeology”, where apart of the ONLAAH project many other colleagues presented new ways of communicating and relating with the public.

Back there the idea of creating a podcast was already one of our goals. Finally, that dream came true.

The first season of the podcast will be dedicated to our teachers on the MOOC on African Archaeology and Heritage. We want to introduce them to the public so the students can start connecting and learning about their work and research.

The following seasons, we will interview archaeologists and researchers but also heritage management experts and museum directors among others,

The July episodes feature Jörg Linstädter and Tilman Lenssen-Erz.

Jörg Linstädter is the Scientific Director of the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and one of the Scientific Directors of the ONLAAH project. In this episode, we talk about his journey as an archaeologist, his interest in African Archaeology,  his engagement on the ONLAAH project and his research projects. Listen to the episode here

On the second episode, we interview Tilman Lenssen-Erz, an archaeologist specialised in African Archaeology and African Rock Art, from the African research Unit, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, of the University of Cologne, and a member of the Heinrich Barth Institute from the same University.

In this episode, we are talking about his journey into Archaeology and African Archaeology, the Daureb Rock Art project and the Daureb guides; the Indigenous Knowledge project with the San trackers of Namibia and so much more on African Heritage. Listen to the episode here.

Enjoy, subscribe and share the podcast on social media with the hashtag #onlahpodcast!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

The last months we have been in quarantine just like the rest of the world, wondering when and how this unsettling period in our lives will end. We wish you are all doing well and keeping safe, physic and psychologically, amidst this chaotic and transformational period.

We have all seen how our world went online with Zoom platform becoming one of the new ways of communication around the globe. Meetings, home education, congresses, seminars and webinars, became part of the “new normal”.

Although it’s been complicated to assimilate the changes we have been through what is undoubtful is the importance and the role of online learning and online communicating in our societies.

For this reason our project is more needed than ever. Bring awareness and make available the outstanding African heritage is a duty we feel deeply related.

Regarding our participation in the International congresses for 2020, which we inform you about on our latest post, we have some updates. Unfortunately, the SAFA Congress to be held in Oxford, was postponed.

The EAA Congress to be held in Budapest, was transformed into an online event. Our colleagues from the EAA have been working hard on this transformation and we are thankful for their effort. We will present our project at session 314 “Sensitizing and Engaging the Public: The Role of Online Learning in Archaeology and Heritage Education“, organized by Sofia Fonseca.

In the meanwhile, we leave you with a presentation of the project we gave on the 12th June to the ICArEHB, at the University of Algarve, one of our project partners. Thank you to João Cascalheira, one of the MOOC teachers, for the invitation and to all the colleagues that came and offer their collaboration and support for the future editions of our MOOC.

We hope you enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubl6mqcvoj62foy/ONLAAH_presentation_ICArEHB_12june2020.mp4?dl=0

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