[kictanet] Online University Education, an opportunity from the post election fiasco

[robert yawe]

Online University Education, an opportunity from the post election fiasco

After reading the articles in the Sunday Nation about the problems being experienced by Universities due to the post election violence I remembered the following saying;

    "If life serves you lemons, make lemonade"

The post election violence will definitely have a major effect on all sectors of education, but I believe there is a quicker fix for the universities in the form of applied technology.

We all know that 90% of the content of a university lecture is exactly that, a lecture, this makes it an ideal candidate for audio conferencing with expansion into video conferencing.  Masinde Muliro, Moi, Egerton and Kabarak should look into providing their lectures virtually.

Telkom, Safaricom and Celtel have a country wide network all we therefore need is a audio/video conferencing bridge installed so that students can listen to the lecture from wherever they are, questions can initially be sent via sms and assignments e-mailed or even posted via snail mail (fine this might not be leading edge technology but I am working on a short leash here).

Exams (CAT's, mice and lobsters) well here is a chance to carry them out online just like is done with TOEFL, SAT and PAT the exams required for entry to American universities, not forgetting those microsoft and Cisco exams many of us have done.

We also will need to push the lecturers to provide their material in form of computer based training (CBT) format.  

Here is the catch are we as IT experts, gurus and nugus ready to take up the challenge? are we ready to work cheap, fast and furious? can we stand up and be counted.

The post election violence has created a problem, lets use this as an opportunity to deliver a leading edge solution.

Now if only the government had concentrated on the terrestrial fiber to the district we would be discussing a different issue.

We are ready to take on this challenge, who else out there is game?

Regards
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
KEnya 
Tel: +254722511225





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