Distance-Learning Provides Real-Life Telecom Experiment for SPP, Nigerians

The eight Nigerian students comprise a distance learning class that Ruth is teaching through a partnership between George Mason University, the Nigerian Communication Commission and the Digital Bridge Institute, a telecom training institute designed and project managed a year ago by GMU Communication Professor Raymond Akwule. The partners are working to turn the institute into a telecom learning center for all of Africa.

The class itself has become a telecom experiment for both students and professors. It offers students a real-life example of “how we can use technology today to extend the reach of knowledge we have,” according to Akwule.

Akwule, who has supervised the course in Nigeria, said the students have an unlimited enthusiasm for the subject and that classes often run longer than planned. This observation is confirmed by the students. “The class has exposed us to the power of the Internet and we now look at it as a platform for E-commerce…Prior to this time most of us never thought those things could be found on the Internet,” said Mohammed Ibraheem, one of the students. Dr Olasupo Ogunfemi, the director of Digital Bridge Institute who is also taking the course, added, “It’s opened up some interesting discussions.”

At the same time, the class is promoting Akwule’s goal to bring technology to developing nations. He said, “This project is just one example of how we can use the resources that we have here on campus to help people as far away as Nigeria in a mutually beneficial way.” While African students at the Digital Bridge Institute learn from Mason faculty members such as Ruth and Akwule, professors get an opportunity to study the telecom issues in developing nations.

“We’ve learned to practice what we preach,” Ruth said. The distance-learning class has combined a series of Mason-to-Nigeria teleconferences, conference calls and other video and audio material based on Ruth’s weekly telecom lectures on GMU TV. The class meets at the institute in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Adds Ruth, “I’ve been getting email, course assignments and other notes from the Nigerian students almost every day”

In addition to their coursework in Nigeria, students are required to visit the Mason campus. During their recent visit, students met with Ruth and other SPP professors and went on field trips to the FCC and U.S. telecom companies. Of particular interest to the class was the work of GMU’s Dr. Michael Kelley, manager of the Capital Connection, who gave two well-received teleconferences using the GMU telecom facilities.

Akwule drew up the plans for the Digital Bridge Institute while traveling in Nigeria during a two-year-leave-of-absence. He hopes that the project will eventually attract students from throughout the region and help Africa get onto the Superhighway. Ruth’s course, he said, is the first step toward this goal because it helps students learn how to fill a gap in Nigeria’s telecom development – a shortage of policy-making leaders to direct the process.

“One of the problems in Nigeria is there isn’t a body of qualified people to guide the country in terms of telecom policy. This course could become very crucial in creating that pool of experts,” Akwule said.

Ironically technology poses a barrier to the program’s success. Both Akwule and his students complain about the technological kinks – fuzzy satellite images and delayed voice transmittals. In addition, Akwule said that the program’s future will rely on the willingness and ability of GMU professors to teach distance-learning classes by taking advantage of GMU’s extensive TV capabilities.

Click here to listen to Professor Steve Ruth's comments on the distance learning class offered in Nigeria.