Picture this:The computer lab is packed to capacity with students .It seems no computer is idle here. Students streaming in and out of the computer lab are a common sight. The building located at the epicenter of the university is a hive of activities. The semester is almost coming to an end. It is race against time as students research on the Internet to gather facts required for their term paper.
Moments later a young man emerges from the building after a frantic search of a computer he can use for his research. He finally gives up. He mumbles that the only hope for him is either to go to a cyber or wait till midnight and then report to the computer lab. It is clear nobody is ready to give up on the computer.
The university is Kenyatta University and the computer lab is the Students' Computer Centre. The computer centre is a large building and home to a huge chunk of desktop computers. The three storey building is also home to six large computer labs all equipped with desktop computers.
A stone's throw from the computer centre is a wireless hot spot area and it is common to see students browsing and using the internet. Internet it seems is a vital tool for students at the campus. Most of the students I interacted with claim that they use Internet for research,Interact with friends via social network such as facebook and twitter.
The sight of computer labs being filled to capacity repeats it self in most public universities that I visited.
UPDATE
The students also concede that they update themselves on current events shaping their world via the internet. Some mumble that they read the newspaper every morning for free thanks to the internet. I came across many students most of whom claim that Internet is of great help to them. In their area of specialization most of these students read online journals and read scholarly articles in their areas of interest. And it is not only that, YouTube is an area of great concern for the students. This has greatly helped them interact with both students and lecturers in other parts of the world.
VIRTUAL TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION
With the coming of Internet most students claim that their world has reduced and attained a form of global village. It is now easy for them to gather resources from all over the world and also communicate in a fraction of a second with a person who is sitting in the other part of the world. According to them any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on internet.
GOOGLERS
Just to make sure that the internet resources are adequately used the googlers were at Kenyatta University at the time of my visit to hold a workshop. The workshop essentially gave hands on training on the best practice around searching the web and how to conduct quality research online. The workshop also focused on taught the students on online sources like Google books.
ONLINE REGISTRATION
During the registration it was a common sight to see students making long queues in order to registrar but things have since changed. The university requires students to register on line. According to the students online registration has saved them a great deal of time and has also made work easy for them.
EMBRACING NEW TECHNOLOGY.
The university has by far embraced the new technology brought about by Internet. The university's website can be accessed from anywhere. Courses are also advertised online and application forms can be downloaded from the website. And just in case you think you are lost while locating the university then have no fear you can locate the university through Google earth.
MILESTONE
Kenyatta University has re-branded the institute of Open Learning to include e-Learning. This effectively makes it The Institute Of Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL). This re-branding of the Institute was geared towards improving the delivery of the educational services to students, which in essence improves the quality of the distance learning programmes. By introducing e-Learning Kenyatta University is adding value to its programmes by placing the student at the Centre of Learning. Under the new Institute, the University has taken a more practical approach to pedagogy, thus addressing students learning needs.
Some of the new developments in the newly established institute include students learning online through an interactive e-Platform, and their access to the University Digital Library. Lecturers will tutor students online and offline and the ODeL programmes will be handled with efficiency. In addition, students, lecturers and the ODeL administration work closely to inject into learning creativity, innovativeness and problem solving solutions. ODeL also aims at having forums for students’ discussions in form of e-Debates, e-Tutorials, e-Workshops and e-Conferencing.
The university also wishes to infuse Ultra-modern e-Technologies into teaching and learning which includes Computer Based Learning and other e- Technologies such as: m-Learning, Video conferencing, Teleconferencing, satellite and web-based technologies.
STUDENTS TAKE QUEUE
In what I saw was a huge step forward the university has made it clear that examinations will be administered with efficiency and mechanisms are already in place for providing feedback to CATs and release of Final Semester Results online and offline.
Students will submit their assignments online and they will get feedback from their facilitators. Students will be provided with two official email addresses and there will be an efficient SMS system that will address student matters.
WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS
With the computer labs dotting university's landscape one would be forgiven for thinking that the students thirst for Internet has ultimately been quenched. Most of the public universities I visited have wireless internet access to ensure that students who have laptops can access Internet