Adaptive Project Design: Early Insights from Working On the Transformation of the Distance Education System in Myanmar

Abstract

The manner in which a development project is designed and implemented can have a significant impact on the nature of the outcomes. There are few examples of international projects funded to support transformation of Higher Education systems in developing countries, so it is important to learn about the factors that emerge as significant and challenge wider assumptions about what works and what does not.

This paper draws on insights from an inception period lasting several months followed by the first full implementation year of the Transformation through Innovation in Distance Education (or TIDE) project. This project, which runs from 1st February 2018 to 30th September 2021, aims at improving the quality and relevance of the distance education system in Myanmar which reaches over half a million students, and involves the participation of 34 Universities spread across the country. The paper discusses a range of unanticipated insights relating to:

The opportunities and challenges faced working within a changing policy context

Sustainability and use of human and financial resources

Gender and characteristics of a rotation based staffing model

The value of openness as an approach // Paper ID 121