Kenya Education Network KENET

1
Kenya Education Network (KENET)

• Interconnecting Academic Research Institutions
  for the Sharing of Educational Resources
• Roadmap to Successful Transnational E-Learning
• Henry M.Thairu
• DVC (Academic) Jomo Kenyatta University of
  Agriculture Technology
• Chairman, KENET Management Committee
• 11th November 2004 Weaving E-learning into
  Higher Education Mainstream SAN ANTONIO TEXAS
• WCET

2
Agenda

• Background
• Objectives
• Challenges
• Partnerships
• Governance
• Members
• Achievements milestones
• Advantages of an NREN
• Future plans

3
Background

• The KENET initiative emanated from the Leland
  initiative 1999. The EDDI project latter
  provided support which has enabled the
  realization of the project this far.
• Local model made up of public private academic
  institutions and support from the
  telecommunications fraternity.

4
Goal
To establish sustainable communication and
networking among educational institutions in
Kenya that will facilitate wide use of ICTs in
teaching, learning, research and sharing of other
information resources to the general populace at
affordable cost.
5
Objectives

• To establish a high speed national IP-based
  network interconnecting all learning and
  educational institutions.
• To provide sustainable and permanent Internet
  access to all institutions
• Create at least one learning center in each
  institution to support e-learning

6
Objectives cont

• To develop a comprehensive national education
  portal with an appropriate e-learning platform
• To train sufficient faculty and ICT support staff
  
• To collaborate in the development of relevant
  content for educational Institutions and the
  general populace
• To collaborate in research within Kenya and with
  external institutions.

7
Challenges

• Infrastructure
• limited coverage of the incumbent operator
  delayed the connectivity of most of the
  strategic institutions.
• exorbitant costs of h/ware, s/ware, b/width
  led to a lot of time spent in negotiations

8
Challenges cont

• Manpower
• High turnover of expert support staff is slowly
  being addressed through continued training
• content developers, faculty staff still needs to
  be trained appropriately

9
Challenges cont

• Running Costs Maintenance
• besides the initial setup, continuity and
  sustainability of the system is paramount
  currently we are piloting a business approach
  model towards sustainability
• Regulatory Taxation Regimes

10
Partnerships

• Besides USAID (Leland/EDDI) who provided the
  initial project funds and momentum, it was deemed
  prudent to engage
• both private public universities (research and
  other institutions as well)
• key players in the telecommunications industry
  namely Telkom Kenya and CCK at the time
• the government
• other stake holders

11
Governance

• KENET Board of Trustees formed in 2001 to
  oversee and steer the initiatives
• KENET Management Committee made up of technical
  personnel/faculty of member institutions
  manages the affairs of KENET on behalf of the
  trustees
• KENET Secretariat formed in 2002 (full time
  staff) to take care of the day to day operations
  of KENET

12
Members

• Universities All public and private universities
  in Kenya are members of KENET. Currently they
  are all connected to the Internet through the
  incumbent fixed line operators backbone
  (JamboNet)
• National Research Institutions these are centers
  of excellence such as ICIPE, KARI, KEMRI. They
  are of strategic value to the network.

13
Members cont.

• Middle level colleges, Polytechnics, and
  Institutions of Technology all categories are
  represented though not all are connected due to
  high cost of b/width
• Secondary schools and Primary schools they are
  very keen to join as KENET members but cost of
  b/width is still high. Currently pilot dial-up
  links are in place to encourage email
  communication largely

14
Members cont.

• Members Institutions coverage

15
Achievements

• All 22 strategic Institutions have been connected
  to the Internet through the nearest point of
  presence to the national backbone.
• KENET has been licensed by the CCK to build and
  operate an educational network
• We have developed capacity in most of our member
  institutions in routing, networking, internet
  technologies, unix expertise

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Achievements.

• Have established a full time secretariat to
  coordinate and drive KENET to the next level
• We are working closely with other educational
  initiatives (CFSK, SchoolNet, Cisco RA/Las,
  NetTel_at_Africa.

17
Future Plans

• Concentrate on Content development and hosting
  encourage members to collaborate through content
  development (jointly) and sharing at all levels.
  This calls for our partners (existing and new
  ones) to assist in numerous ways e.g the software
  industry to work closely with our members.

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Advantages of an NREN

• It facilitates Collaboration and Resourcing
  sharing
• Capacity building is easier to achieve
• It facilitates better sharing of scarce human and
  physical resources in Africa
• Facilitates collaboration between networks in
  Africa and networks in other parts of the world.

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Conclusion

• The KENET initiative has proved to be feasible
  and at the same time it has provided an excellent
  example of the benefits of getting both private
  and public institutions to work together.
  Despite the many challenges ahead, KENET is on
  the right track towards the establishment of a
  sustainable communication and networking among
  educational institutions in Kenya that will
  facilitate wide use of Internet technology in
  teaching, research and sharing of other
  informational resources to the general populace
  at affordable cost.
• Thanks to LI/EDDI