University of Namibia signs multimillion audiovisual communication deal

Dimension Data is working with the University of Namibia to improve education delivery through a sophisticated R3,5 million audiovisual communication project, the first of its kind to be deployed in Namibia on such a large scale.

Since the university has campuses located hundreds of kilometers apart, travel and time costs are high, with lecturers having to travel between the campuses. Through the project with Dimension Data, the university is bridging these distances by implementing several high-end videoconferencing systems.

Gordon McGregor, head of infrastructure services at the University of Namibia, explains that three years ago the University of Namibia, then based entirely in Windhoek, "decided to bring the university to the people and opened its doors to those in the North, establishing campuses in Oshakati and Ogongo.

"These campuses are 750 km north of our main campus in Windhoek and just travelling to and from these Northern reaches takes two days," he says.

To counter this and improve education delivery to the people, Dimension Data Interactive Media installed four high-end PictureTel Concorde 4200 videoconferencing systems at the University of Namibia`s Main Campus in Windhoek, Neudamm College (near Windhoek), the Northern Campus in Oshakati, and Ogongo College (near Oshakati). The calls are routed through a bridge at the main campus. In addition, PictureTel Concorde 4500 boardroom systems will be installed at the Main Campus and Northern Campus.

With the new audiovisual communication solutions, a Windhoek-based lecturer can regularly teach between 75 and 100 students located at the other campuses without leaving the Windhoek lecture hall. Through technology, lecturers can utilise tools such as document cameras which enable transmission of diagrams for general discussion with all the students.

Tutorial sessions are also given via videoconferencing to smaller groups of 10-12 people, enabling a greater degree of interaction between students and lecturer.

In addition, one-on-one consultations are also possible without the expense of sending a lecturer up north. Guest lecturers, such as Fullbright fellows, who come to Windhoek now need only give their lecture in the capital city for students at the Northern Campuses to benefit too.

"The feedback from the students up north has been unbelievable," says McGregor. "They are excited, believing videoconferencing is the right way to go and they are not at all nervous of the technology."

McGregor also feels videoconferencing is the right solution as it enables lecturers and students to interact face to face. "Videotapes don`t provide this feedback which is crucial, especially for the English language classes we give to the largely Afrikaans speaking populace in the North," he says.

Commenting on Dimension Data, Mcgregor says: "It is a multinational group which could supply us with a state-of-the-art videoconferencing solution from PictureTel Corporation, the world leader in integration collaboration. The Interactive Media division also has a local representative on hand in Namibia to resolve any technology hiccups we might experience."

In the future, the University of Namibia plans not only to utilise videoconferencing extensively but also to hire out its videoconferencing systems as both part of an outreach program and to further recoup the equipment costs.