roads, also pose challenges for many. In response to the great
demand for distance learning to make in-country education
more accessible, Michigan Virtual University is supporting
Nigeria’s first e-learning project.
Using video technology and a mobile device, e-learn-
ing students at the Center for Distance Learning at Obafemi
Awolowo University participate in lectures from anywhere.
The university predicts more than 50,000 people per year will
receive undergraduate and post-graduate degrees through this
program.
Luckey Hlatshwayo poses outside of his school in rural South Africa.
He became number one in his class after using video lectures to
study.
severe home conditions in rural bandwidth-challenged areas.
The University of the Free State’s IDEAS Lab in the Distance
Education Department is looking to change that by providing
support in core subjects to more than 80 schools – more than
54,000 learners and 3,000 teachers – within the Free State
province.
The IDEAS Lab uses a private network to deliver five
hours of daily video lectures from highly qualified teachers
around the province. Videos are created in the IDEAS Lab
studio and automatically distributed to remote endpoints via
a robust MPLS VSAT content delivery network. The videos
provide support for subjects like math, science, economics,
accounting, and geography, as well as teaching development
training programs.
Since the school began this program in 2011, the ma-
jority of school sites have shown improvement in pass rates,
with some schools jumping from 17 percent to more than 96
percent.
One of the IDEAS Lab’s students is Luckey Hlatshwayo.
He lives in one of the most rural areas of the South African
Free State province. His family couldn’t afford to send him
to a university, but Luckey, extremely motivated to succeed,
put everything he had into his studies at Phofung Secondary
School. He became number one in his class after using video
lectures to study. Now, he wants to go to a university to study
actuarial sciences.
“I see the light for me,” he said in a video the University of
the Free State created about its video lecture program. “If you
can’t change the situation, make the best of it. I made the best
of it. You can do better by hard work. Your books are there.
We have teachers. We have so many things. You just have to
use them and work hard.”
Michigan Virtual University and Nigeria
In Nigeria, 1.2 million students qualify to begin college
each year, but the country’s 104 universities can only accept
300,000 students. Infrastructure challenges in the country,
such as unstable electricity, bandwidth problems, and poor
Florida State University and Global STEM Education
Florida State University emphasizes global responsibility
for education. Its desire to foster creativity and provide a free
resource for educational material with the skills and talents of
people around the world led to the creation of Global Edu-
cational Outreach for Science Engineering and Technology
(GEOSET), a global network of participating sites that deliver
exceptional downloadable STEM teaching materials created
by the best science and technology experts and educators.
Goethe University and Indonesia
At Frankfurt, Germany’s Goethe University, graduate
student Maya Tutughamiarso taught an online high school
chemistry class. She originally had difficulty connecting with
her students, but not in the typical teenager versus adult
way — they were on separate continents. She taught the online
class from Frankfurt, while the students were in Indonesia.
Students aren’t just learning in classrooms face-to-face
with their instructors anymore. Connecting virtually is
allowing students, regardless of time and distance, to receive
a high-quality education when and where it’s convenient.
Having an academic video strategy means students will never
miss a beat in the face of unexpected circumstances.
Gary Weis is CEO of Sonic
Foundry, a Madison, Wisconsin-
based company that is traded
on the NASDAQ under the
ticker symbol SOFO. His focus
is on helping companies and
universities around the world
communicate better through
the power of video.
Gary Weis
Chief Execut ive Officer
Sonic Foundry
January 2018
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