Evaluating the implementation of international computing curricular in African universities: A design-reality gap approach

Efforts are been made by Universities in developing countries to ensure that it's graduate are not left behind in the competitive global information society; thus have adopted international computing curricular for their computing degree programs. However, adopting these international curricula seem to be very challenging for developing countries having in mind that they were developed for developed rather than developing countries realities. In this paper, we use Heeks (2002) design-reality gap as an evaluative space for an international computing curricula assessment. We employed the OPTIMISM concepts of the design reality gap framework to focus on the match or mismatch of implementing such curricula in a developing country setting. We based our evaluation on the design and implementation of an international (British) computing degree programs in a private university in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that significant progress has been made, but that important gaps between design and reality exist, hence, challenges persist. The study concludes with some recommendations for policy makers advancing an agenda for "ICTs for Development" in the education sector.