Harnessing innovation to transform education at the core
Innovation has long been recognized as the driving force behind societal progress and economic growth. In today’s disrupted and rapidly evolving world, the imperative for innovation has never been more pressing. As global dynamics continue to shift, Africa stands poised to harness its youth demographic and provide the next global workforce. But only by the collective action of the education ecosystem can this become a reality.
For innovation to have a practical effect, we develop a deliberate and adaptive approach through testing, learning, and scaling solutions, whilst building cross-functional and cross-border teams.
Honoris’ Open Innovation approach
Our approach to deploying innovation at scale since our inception in 2017 has been diverse across the student journey, leveraging partnerships with local and global EdTechs to improve learning outcomes, future-proof our academic models, and fast-track digital transformation, all geared to increasing access to quality education.
Our Open Innovation Strategy covers:
Digital content and online learning experiences
Tech-enabled systems and immersive learning environments
Workforce solutions both for talent services and upskilling/reskilling
In 2022, we piloted five new academic models to increase student success, in a range of sectors and disciplines, reaching 33,000 students. Pilots have been completed with adaptive learning platform Lecturio, online course provider Coursera, augmented reality software platform EON Reality, language and literacy pioneer Rosetta Stone, whilst continuing to develop coding bootcamps in new and existing markets. By disrupting traditional pedagogies with innovative, relevant academic models, we are able to prepare African talent with the skills, experience, mindset, and aspirations to achieve their full potential and transform their communities. By harnessing the latest in technologies, we are able to offer a variety of modes of study, from fully online, to fully on-campus, blended, short courses, and even in the metaverse.
Honoris’ Institution cases
Our exclusive partnership with the world-leading coding bootcamp Le Wagon expanded into Cape Town in 2022 to bring this critical skill to learners in South Africa, marking the third bootcamp developed since 2021 after Morocco and Mauritius. Increasing the development of alternative academic models like coding bootcamps answers the need for skills acquisition with high Return on Investment (ROI) for students.
Adaptive learning uses the power of Artificial Intelligence to recreate the experience of a personalized tutor whilst continually assessing student progress to support student outcomes. Following a successful pilot, our health schools in Tunisia rolled out Lecturio, one of the world’s leading online medical education platforms, to train tomorrow’s healthcare professionals with the latest in adaptive learning techniques. So far 2,063 students across UPSAT and Université Centrale Health School have had access to the platform with 10,000+ videos with linked quiz questions, concept pages, and a clinical case question bank. Students cover disciplines in Nursing, Anesthesia, Physical Therapy, Eye Care, Orthoptics, Medical Imaging, Operating Room Instrumentation, Human Nutrition, Dental Prosthetics, and Midwifery. The partnership reinforces our stance as a leader in health education in Africa and particularly in Tunisia, alongside the Honoris Medical Simulation Center. We continue to develop 21st century learning environments to support our student-centric approach.
Morocco-based EMSI continues to receive international recognition and world-class awards for its focus on innovation, particularly through its pioneering SMARTiLab, the research, development, and innovation laboratory. In September 2022, engineers representing EMSI were awarded three gold medals and one platinum at the International Invention Competition EXPO in London, UK. The SIProM Intelligent Marine Prospecting System was crowned with a gold medal, a network of intelligent robots each having one or more sensors to collect ecological, meteorological, military, and maritime information for research purposes. SMARTiLab’s multidisciplinary team of doctors, Ph.D. students, engineers, associate professors, technicians, and students continue to drive the innovation ecosystem in Morocco and contribute to the growing scale of the country in the Global Innovation Index
Scaling innovation
Honoris continues to apply an Open Innovation Strategy to growth across the continent both in new and existing markets, having identified seven further areas for potential piloting in the next academic year.
In addition, we continue to create spaces where students have the opportunity to further their skills and passion for the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Africa, through a network-wide partnership with AfriLabs.
Across the network, we continued our partnership with French-based BCdiploma to provide students with verified certificates provided through blockchain technology. This ensures that students have life-long shareable access to their records for employers and professional networks. In 2022, 17,000 blockchain certificates were issued to Honoris graduates.
