Eugene Kwibuka
30 September 2008
Kigali — Students and educators in Rwanda can now access course materials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States (US) through its OpenCourseWare hosted online by the National University of Rwanda (NUR), The New Times has learnt.
Last week, NUR officials announced the partnership with MIT that is expected to make learning and teaching materials of the institute's faculty more accessible to local university students through the National University of Rwanda's campus network.
"NUR has already moved from the traditional education system based on 'Chalk and Talk' to the Bologna System, which is mainly focusing on the student-centered learning approach. At this time, it is a great advantage to have the mirror site of MIT Open Courseware available locally in the campus," said the NUR Rector, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba.
He added that students and staff within the university and other higher institutions of learning in Rwanda will access the didactic materials without struggling with the barrier of Internet bandwidth in the country.
"I am very grateful for the support provided by the MIT to NUR and to Rwanda by providing the MIT OpenCourseWare. Currently we are working very closely with MIT to bring iLab facility to NUR in order to support the students and staff to use different equipment needed for their research and studies," he added.
MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) makes the MIT Faculty's course materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate subjects available, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world through its website.
However, efforts to make these educational materials more accessible to students and educators from Rwanda with an inadequate Internet connection required hosting a local copy of the materials.
MIT officials say that they want to spread their learning materials by providing easy access especially in developing countries where internet connection is not good.
The Executive Director of the MIT OCW project, Cecilia d'Oliveira, congratulated NUR for hosting their didactic materials, hoping that the MIT will make a difference in the way of training learners in Rwanda.
"We understand that the MIT faculty's course materials are only useful if people have access to the materials, whether that is via the Internet, or the NUR's campus network. We look forward to learning from educators and students throughout Rwanda what difference these materials make in their teaching and learning," she said.
The National University of Rwanda is hosting the MIT OCW mirror site at http://ocw.nur.ac.rw.
The university is also currently working very closely with MIT to bring an online laboratory (iLab) facility in order to support students and staff to use different equipment needed for their research and studies, Prof. Lwakabamba said.
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