Supporting the African STACK Community: The INNODEMS Model

Juma Zevick, Michael Oyengo, Santiago Borio, Georg Osang and David Stern

Abstract

This case study highlights the role of INNODEMS in sustaining and scaling STACK adoption across Africa. It documents how the INNODEMS Internship Programme evolved into a structured support model that now provides technical assistance, training, and open educational resources for universities across Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and beyond. Through collaboration with institutions and professionals, the team has strengthened digital assessment practices, improved course delivery, and fostered a growing network of trained practitioners supporting mathematics education in Africa.

Background

This case study builds on the previous one that introduced the INNODEMS STACK Internship Programme, which was created to develop local capacity for supporting digital mathematics assessment in Africa, and in some cases the institutionalisation of STACK at certain universities. The programme was started to provide opportunities for young mathematics graduates and educators to gain practical, hands-on experience in supporting universities and colleges across Africa with STACK integration.

STACK interns are recent graduates in mathematics, computer science, or education who show interest in developing open source digital learning and assessment tools. During the internship, they learn how to edit, manage, and design STACK materials and courses on Moodle. They also develop other technical skills through related projects, such as contributing to open-source digital textbooks for secondary school (Grades 7–12) learners in Kenya, in collaboration with teachers and curriculum specialists to ensure alignment with the national Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). Each intern receives mentoring from experienced lecturers and content developers, and works on an actual university courses to apply their skills directly as they learn.

The programme began with four interns who successfully completed their training and began supporting the deployment of STACK locally. Over time, these four have grown in their skills and now take on leadership roles such as mentoring a new cohort of ten interns. This has helped build a network of trained practitioners who can sustain and expand the project capacity across Africa.

As a result of this work, demand for STACK support has grown rapidly, with several universities and even Technical and Vocational Training Institutes (TVETs) expressing interest in STACK integration and in the locally available expertise offered by the INNODEMS team. The support has now extended beyond Kenya and Ethiopia to include institutions in Tanzania, South Sudan, Ghana and Somalia, marking an encouraging expansion of the African STACK community across new regions.

The sections that follow describe how the internship model evolved into a sustainable support system, detailing the INNODEMS support model, its impact, and future plans for expanding digital mathematics education across Africa.

New_interns photo
Figure 1:The new team of INNODEMS interns together with supporting leadership from INNODEMS and IDEMS International.

The INNODEMS Support Model

The INNODEMS support model is structured around three main pillars:

  • Community and resource development,
  • Technical support, and
  • Training and capacity building.

These areas work together to ensure long-term sustainability and growth of digital mathematics assessment in Africa.

Community and Resource Development

One of the leading tasks of INNODEMS is building shared digital resources for the African STACK community. The team works closely with lecturers to prepare their courses for STACK use, often developing or refining question banks together during the process. These open question banks cover key areas of undergraduate mathematics and are freely available for universities to use, adapt, and expand.

Each question bank contains an average of 200 questions, with more continuously being developed and existing ones regularly refined. These resources have become valuable starting points for lecturers introducing digital assessments in their courses, offering ready-to-use materials aligned with undergraduate curricula.

The questions have been developed in collaboration with a range of African and non-African institutions and organisations since 2018, and they remain under ongoing review and development. Users are encouraged to always use the latest versions when integrating these questions into their courses.

The question banks are organised into the following broad areas:

  1. Basic Maths - Question Tracker
  2. Complex Numbers - Question Tracker
  3. Calculus - Question Tracker
  4. Linear Algebra - Question Tracker
  5. Statistics and Probability - Question Tracker
  6. Advanced Mathematics (Measure Theory and Foundations of Pure Mathematics) - Question Tracker
  7. Applied Mathematics - Question Tracker

There have also been international contributions, such as Prof. Chris Sangwin’s contribution of the HELM (Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics) workbooks developed by his team, to also contribute to the work done in Africa by the interns.

Technical Support

The team offers direct technical assistance to universities by helping them set up and manage their Moodle platforms, deploy STACK question banks, and troubleshoot technical challenges. They also support institutions to migrate from traditional assessments to blended, or fully online approaches using STACK.

Below is a summary of key institutions currently supported:

  • Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST, Kenya) – 8–10 courses supported each semester, reaching about 600–1,200 students per course.
  • Maseno University (Kenya)– 6–8 courses supported each semester, with approximately 600–1,000 students per course.
  • Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI, Kenya)– 3–4 courses supported, serving 200–450 students per course.
  • Rongo University (Kenya) – 4–5 courses supported, focusing on foundational mathematics and analysis courses.
  • Technical University of Kenya (TUK, Kenya) – 3–4 courses supported, reaching 800–1,200 students per course.
  • University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)– 2–3 courses supported, each with about 1,000–1,200 students.
  • University of Namibia (Namibia)– 2–3 courses supported, reaching 400–500 students per course.
  • Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) – 2 courses supported, mainly in Basic Mathematics for Natural and Social Sciences.
  • University of Trieste (Italy)– 1 course supported, *Fisica I*, serving 150–300 students.
  • Open University of Kenya (Kenya) – ongoing support for initial STACK integration and pilot testing of digital courses.
Training and Capacity Building

In addition to technical development, the INNODEMS team is committed to strengthening human capacity across African institutions. The team conducts training at conferences, for university lecturers, TVET tutors, and new STACK authors through workshops, peer-learning sessions, and online mentorship. One recent example is a training workshop held at Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI, Kenya), facilitated by INNODEMS interns Mary Sayuni and Nixson Kiplagat. The session focused on hands-on authoring of STACK questions and integrating digital assessment into teaching practice (see Figure 2).

Attendance photo
Figure 2: Participants of the training workshop held at Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI). The session was facilitated by INNODEMS interns.

Impact and Reach

Since its inception, the INNODEMS model has significantly strengthened digital assessment capacity across African universities. Through structured mentorship, technical support, and open resource development, the team has built a growing network of practitioners advancing the use of STACK in teaching and learning mathematics.
To date, INNODEMS has supported 7 institutions across 5 countries, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania,Namibia, and even outside Africa to places like Italy, covering over 20 courses and reaching an estimated 10,000+ students annually. What began in 2023 with just four interns has grown into a diverse team of 14 members (and still growing) by 2025, all actively supporting STACK integration and lecturer training.

The team has also conducted three national workshops and two pre-conference training sessions, equipping over 150 lecturers and tutors from several African countries with practical skills in digital assessment authoring, course setup, and data-driven feedback. These training sessions have played a key role in helping universities transition from traditional to blended and online assessment models.

Beyond direct institutional impact, INNODEMS contributes to scholarly knowledge and research on technology-enhanced learning in Africa. Collaborative publications and conference presentations have documented emerging practices and lessons from the African STACK community. Notable examples can be found in the bibliography section.

Challenges and Opportunities

As INNODEMS continues to support the growth of digital assessment in African universities, several community-level challenges and opportunities have emerged.

Key Challenges:

  • Funding and sustainability: INNODEMS currently operates as a support and capacity-building organization rather than an income-generating model. While this approach aligns with its open and collaborative philosophy, it presents challenges in ensuring financial sustainability. Many African universities also face resource constraints, which limits their ability to contribute financially to the support provided by the team.
  • Balancing local demand and team capacity: The growing number of institutions requesting support has outpaced the current team’s capacity. Expanding the support structure while maintaining quality remains a key operational challenge.
  • Infrastructure limitations: Some partner institutions experience unreliable internet connectivity and limited access to adequate computer hardware, which can slow the adoption of online assessment tools.
  • Sustainable maintenance: Continuous technical maintenance of servers and STACK platforms requires both financial and human resource investment. Establishing a consistent funding mechanism is essential for long-term stability.
  • Culturally responsive mentorship: Training and mentorship must be tailored to local contexts. This means recognizing diverse institutional realities and designing capacity-building programs that are practical, inclusive, and context-sensitive.

Lessons Learned and Opportunities:

  • Peer-to-peer learning works: Institutions that engage in mutual support and mentorship tend to progress faster and sustain implementation better.
  • Documentation and open sharing: Maintaining structured documentation and openly sharing resources has been essential for replication, transparency, and institutional learning.
  • Long-term partnerships matter: Building relationships of trust with institutions—often formalized through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs)—creates ownership, continuity, and shared responsibility.
  • Collaboration strengthens sustainability: Joint efforts between universities and open-source partners like IDEMS International, INNODEMS, and the STACK community ensure technical innovation, shared problem-solving, and sustainability.
  • Skills growth and networking: Participation in INNODEMS activities has provided opportunities for lecturers, interns, and students to develop valuable digital, pedagogical, and leadership skills. It has also fostered cross-institutional and international networks that support ongoing collaboration and career development..

Despite resource and infrastructure constraints, these challenges have strengthened the INNODEMS model by encouraging innovation, collaboration, and resilience.

Recent Achievements

Alongside its support for universities and TVETs, the INNODEMS team has also contributed to the development of open PreTeXt digital textbooks, in collaboration with the PreTeXt, STACK, and IDEMS teams. This work includes:

  • Kenyan Secondary School Textbooks (Grades 7–12): Developed to support the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), these textbooks integrate STACK-based exercises that allow learners to practice interactively and at their own pace.
  • Ethiopian Basic Mathematics Textbook: Textbook supporting the first-year undergraduate course Basic Mathematics which is a compulsory course for all undergraduate university students in Ethiopia, regardless of their field of study — potentially benefiting over 100,000 students each year across Ethiopia.

Additionally, INNODEMS has recently begun expanding regional support, providing early-stage technical assistance and mentorship for institutions in South Sudan and Somalia, marking a new phase of regional growth and collaboration in the African STACK community.

All these open educational materials are developed and maintained through the INNODEMS GitHub repository: github.com/INNODEMS.

Next Steps

The INNODEMS team aims to expand its model of locally led digital support to reach more institutions across Africa. Building on the progress made so far, the next phase focuses on growth, collaboration, and sustainability.

The key priorities include:

  • Expanding institutional support: Extending STACK implementation to additional universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions across Africa.
  • Establishing regional hubs: Setting up a regional support hub under INNODEMS to coordinate and mentor emerging “similar” teams in different countries.
  • Strengthening global connections: Deepening collaboration with the STACK Professionals Network to encourage cross-country mentorship, shared learning, and co-authorship of new resources.
  • Ensuring sustainability: Building long-term partnerships and exploring various funding models to maintain the team, the technical infrastructure, resource development, and training activities amongst other areas requiring funding.

Acknowledgements

The INNODEMS team acknowledges the invaluable support of IDEMS International, Maseno University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, University of Dar es Salaam and Bahir Dar University for their collaboration and mentorship.
Special thanks to Prof. Chris Sangwin for sharing the HELM materials and continuous guidance in STACK development and overall use.
We also recognise the dedication of the INNODEMS interns and partner lecturers whose enthusiasm continues to shape the African STACK community.

Bibliography