Globacom Nigeria and the University of Ilorin have entered into a partnership to start a platform where students can get access to their lectures and lecturers from anywhere in the world.
The platform, which will ride on Globacom’s nationwide voice and data infrastructure, will be accessed via the student’s portable devices or large computers, the Second National Operator has announced.
This collaboration was the outcome of a visit by principal officers of the university led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali to the Mike Adenuga Towers, Globacom’s corporate headquarters recently.
Prof. Ambali applauded the existing relationship the institution already has with the company and requested that the relationship be upgraded to meet the demands of teaching in the internet age.
Receiving the delegation, Prabhat Aggarwal, Globacom’s Chief Commercial Director explained that the telecoms company had the richest experience in providing integrated telecommunication services to organisations in the country.
According to him, “with this track record and given our wide network running on microwave infrastructure, optic fiber rings and the Glo 1 submarine cable, it will not be difficult to provide integrated voice and data services to your community for academic, administration and security purposes.”
Globacom explained to the team that the company already had an electronic learning (e-learning) template that could put all faculty curriculum, lecture notes and cached teaching sessions for up to 5 years on the intranet or internet for the academic community to reach at will from anywhere.
This is in addition to video streaming, local intranet and extranet, web-based learning plus teleconferencing facilities which can make a live connection between students in a class and a lecturer from anywhere in the world.
Globacom offered to also provide the University community with internal communication solutions including Closed User Group (CUG), fixed wireless connections and Bucket GPRS services which provides bulk data bundle for the entire community and PABX connections.
The university’s delegation included the Prof. Olugbenga Mokuolu, Head Of Consultancy Services, Dr. Jeleel Ojuade Director of ICT and Acting Director, Prof. Ahmed Musa Advancement Centre.