East Africa VarsityNet Project

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East Africa VarsityNet Project

• MEETING OF THE SPECIALISED COMMITTEE ON ICT
  EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA
• Nov 27 - 28 2006

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VarsityNet Background

• Has been going on since Sept 2003
• Initiated by the UN Economic Commission for
  Africa (ECA), within AISI and ALN
• Coordinated in East Africa by the IUCEA
• Aims at enhancing the role of universities as
  centres of excellence in research, specifically
  with respect to the development of innovative ICT
  solutions to national and regional challenges.
• The overall objective is to enable universities
  form a workable and working partnership with
  relevant stakeholders in RD development on
  relevant and appropriate ICT applications
• Two phases have been undertaken (perhaps 3)

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Overall Goals of VarsityNet

• Strengthen RD in ICTs in universities and higher
  education institutions
• Encourage innovation in ICT applications for the
  benefit of the countries
• Pioneer RD collaborations that provide realistic
  and applicable solutions in the digital age
• Encourage specifically the software development
  role of universities, reinforcing their potential
  role as incubators and generators of ideas
• Enable universities become supporters of greater
  access to the information age by citizens through
  content development efforts
• Create the necessary conditions for generating
  knowledge, which is generated and produced on
  Africa-specific conditions in the information
  society for teaching and learning purposes.

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VarsityNet Phase I Pilot

• Piloted in East Africa (software research in
  e-government) and Ethiopia (African languages)
• Collaboration between UoN (Kenya), UDSM
  (Tanzania), MAK (Uganda). EAC and JKUAT also
  participated
• Developed an e-governance conceptual model and
  methodology to undertake a needs assessment at
  the East African Community (EAC)
• Developed a prototype application based on OSS to
  demonstrate how an activity of IUCEA (supporting
  IFP) could be better managed
• Revealed the existence of OSS capability in the
  region

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Screen 1 Application Form
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Screen 2 Applicant Details
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Screen 3 Selection Module
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Screen 4 Selection Module
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Screen 5 Selection Report
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Screen 6 Discussion Forum Login
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Screen 7 Discussion Forum Threads
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Screen 8 Discussion Forum Messages
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VarsityNet Phase II

• Scaled up the project into a wider context
• More universities brought into the project
  (public and private)
• Undertook to develop a system for universities
• Main task to create a common framework, based on
  OSS, for integrating IUCEA member universities
  education services (the focus being on
  registration of new and continuing students
  generation of students transcripts and
  certificates online access to student
  information)

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Project Activities

• Divided into two
• System investigation and analysis
• Study of existing systems
• Consultations through focus group discussions and
  interviews
• Development and testing
• Based at Makerere University

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Focus Group Discussions

• To discuss the specific requirements in each of
  the universities, and share experience on the
  progress so far made in this area
• Overall Purpose to gather information that will
  be used to formulate a common framework in the
  development of a students Management Information
  System
• Held in each country, attended by representatives
  of major universities
• Kenya JKUAT, UoN, MU, USIU, Daystar
• Tanzania UDSM, OUT, SUA, HKMU, ZANZ
• Uganda MAK, MUST, KYA, UMU, UCU
• Requirements used by Makerere University to
  develop a prototype of the system

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Developed System

• Generic, open source (MySQL/PHP), modular,
  web-enabled
• Can handle
• Admission of students into an academic programme
• Curricula and course records management
• Allocation of courses to registered staff members
  within a given academic unit.
• Management of student academic performance
  records
• Freely distributed to IUCEA member universities
• Has been tested and implemented at six (6)
  universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
• Testing continues.

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Hierarchy of System Users with Corresponding
Privileges

• Create academic units
• Manage academic grades
• Manage users system accounts
• Generate a students transcript

Top Administrator

• Create and manage staff and students system
  accounts
• Manage academic programmes with their affiliated
  courses
• Assign staff to courses offered within a given
  period of study
• Generate a list of staff / students
• Generate a students provisional transcript

Academic Unit_1 Administrator
Academic Unit_n Administrator

• Modifies own profile
• Generates own provisional transcript

Staff_1
Staff_n
Student_1
Student_n

• Modifies own profile
• Generate a list of registered students per
  academic course
• Enters assessment results for taught students
• Generate a students provisional transcript

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Top Administrator Menu
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University Grading System
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Academic Unit Administrator(Creating Academic
Programme)
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Academic Unit Administrator(Adding Courses)
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Staff Member(Submitting Exam Results)
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Student(Viewing Exam Results)
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Transcript
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Emerging Issues
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1. Existing Systems

• A number of universities already have information
  systems handling students data/records, some
  based on OSS, others on proprietary software
• Most of the systems were purchased off-the-shelf,
  others donated by international partners many
  are experiencing support problems
• Concern was raised on how the system will
  co-exist with the existing systems i.e. there was
  fear that this system may replace the existing
  ones
• Agreed that the system should be able to
  integrate with what is available. Since it is
  developed in modules, a university, for instance,
  may decide to incorporate only the modules that
  it needs.

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2. Project/System Scalability

• Ability to expand the project to cover other
  areas of concern to universities e.g. finance,
  human resources, library, etc
• Even within ARIS, expand it to cover other areas
  e.g. alumni, students placement service
• Allow for continuous expansion

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3. Open Source Software

• OSS capacity still low in most universities
• Currently led by individuals/champions
• Need for involvement of top administrators of the
  universities
• Universities should have it as a policy that OSS
  will be their preferred software. May only use
  commercial software where OSS is not
  cost-effective.
• From a regional perspective, it would be
  beneficial if all universities operate on a
  common OSS platform
• Undertake awareness campaigns within the
  universities, to sensitise stakeholders on the
  capabilities of OSS

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5. Research

• Research on the present level and role of ICT in
  higher education (e-education), and the available
  software platforms.
• A study on the use of open source software in
  HEIs to establish both the capacity and use of
  open source software in the East African
  countries.
• Universities should consider localizing content
  for local consumption e.g. into Kiswahili.
• The role of policies institutional, national,
  regional

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6. Sustainability

• Each country to have a software incubation centre
  
• Based at one of the member universities with
  adequate commitment and capacity in terms of
  infrastructure and skilled human resources
• The centres would
• develop and maintain software
• serve to impart skills to both students and staff
  in the respective countries.
• provide support to universities with inadequate
  open source software capacity.
• have two/three developers attached to it.

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7. Other Proposals for Future Activities

• Replication of the application in other higher
  education institutions
• Organization of more technical capacity building
  for Students Management Information System
  (SMIS) and OSS for administrators, and users
• Availing support for an education expert meeting
  for integration of OSS into students curriculum
• Undertaking a research study on the feasibility
  of a physical inter-connection of member
  universities with broadband technology

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Project Impact/Benefits

• Facilitated collaboration between universities,
  and enabled universities to share experiences
• Enhanced research capacities of universities,
  with respect to software development (using OSS)
• Identification of areas where capacity is lacking
  and need to build same e.g. OSS
• Better assessment and understanding of problems
  facing Africa/universities and solutions by
  universities themselves
• Identification of areas of further cooperation
  and research by universities in the region
• Develop cost-effective software systems that
  solve real problems at the universities and
  parent societies

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Way Forward

• Validation workshop was held and partners from
  testing sites made recommendations to enhance the
  usability of the software system
• Most of the recommended functionalities have been
  incorporated
• After this the system should be ready for
  distribution to member universities
• Welcome further insight from this committee on
  how we may need to proceed (on VarsityNet and
  other projects)