Workshop B in Eldoret (21/11/2011 - 23/11/2011)
During the Workshop B in Eldoret the developed strategies and concepts for solving the former agenda were introduced and discussed. The achieved progresses were more than what had been expected, since during Workshop B, both particular projects and components of the planned ICT-solutions could be tested. A big part of this success was the direct integration of the college management into the other projects. Therefore users of the ICT systems were actively involved, as well as members of the college management were in each moment part of all tests and meetings. For this reason the danger of error developments was minimized through direct feedback; also the access to the needed resources was simplified and became more rapid.
Despite rigorous safety regulations a video conference with coworkers at the University of Bayreuth and several other tests could be done directly out of the server environment of Moi University. Without the direct participation of the College Board this surely would have not been possible. Documents were successfully exchanged, presented, and developed together as well as audio and video transmissions took place. According to these experiences the participants created an agenda for the IT-infrastructure of both universities, in order to establish a stable video conference system, which IT-laypersons can operate with in the future.
Out of Eldoret one can access the e-learning environment successfully. It had been developed at the chair applied informatics 4 and it was run by them. The possibilities to integration the individual components into the existing e-learning system of Moi University, as well as the development of a common e-learning system were analyzed in this regard. The technical possibility of realizing the offering of virtual lectures over the boundaries of a single campus was therefore proven. A special challenge will be the support of smartphones and the UMTS-networks Orange and Safaricom which are widespread in Kenya. If these technical requests can be solved within the project, virtual lectures could be taken from anywhere and from very user who has a mobile phone internet access.
In the same way some tests with special components of the virtual research environment ViATOR have been very successful. It was for example possible to log via the ViATOR web surface in a personalized virtual research environment and to work on various projects in this specific cloud. The invitation of further scientists into the respective projects occurred without any problems. Culmination of the test scenario was the successful request of a Microsoft Word Service which is offered over ViATOR by the University Bayreuth. On the Kenyan side only a simple web browser without any additional plugin was needed.
Parallel to these tests of the IT-group, the progresses of the archiving group were inspected. Thanks to the sponsorship of the DAAD, a scanner, mother boards and student assistants could be financed. After the return from Workshop A in Bayreuth, the board of Moi University cleared the much needed space for the students to work in and opened the necessary access into the university archive. Numerous dissertations were digitalized at the same time the Workshop B occurred. An exchange with the University of Bayreuth occurs at this point via third party providers, as well as via the library software of Moi University. Agreements for the installation of a common repository were set in in the end.
Parallel to these tests of the IT-group, the progresses of the archiving group were inspected. Thanks to the sponsorship of the DAAD, a scanner, mother boards and student assistants could be financed. After the return from Workshop A in Bayreuth, the board of Moi University cleared the much needed space for the students to work in and opened the necessary access into the university archive. Numerous dissertations were digitalized at the same time the Workshop B occurred. An exchange with the University of Bayreuth occurs at this point via third party providers, as well as via the library software of Moi University. Agreements for the installation of a common repository were set in in the end.