Proposed by Mamman Aminu Ibrahim. Ph.D. Lennox S. O. Liverpool. Ph.D. Background and Rationale Over the last ten years a great emphasis has been placed on connecting African universities to the Internet. Given that more and more academic resources are moving to the Internet – and in some cases being made available only on the Internet – it is imperative that African universities become connected soon if they are not to be rendered irrelevant in the modern academic world. On the other hand, with its enormous resources and collaborative capacities, Internet connectivity poses a historically unique chance for African universities to gain a more equal footing with their sister institutions in the more developed countries. The emphasis these last ten years has been on creating new connections to the Internet in developing countries. However, putting the wires into place is only the beginning of the story. How universities implement networking and information systems is, in the long run, much more important. Which policies they put into place, who is given access to the technology and training, and which long-term strategies the universities adopt for creating sustainability and growth, all play a significant role in the eventual success of information technology on African campuses. Creating an academic environment where information technology is widely embraced and utilized across the broad spectrum of disciplines requires a great deal of planning, training, and resources. If African universities are to become producers of Internet content and digital educational material (rather than just consumers), as well as use the World Wide Web and multimedia teaching tools to their best advantage, whole generations of academics will need to be introduced to computer-based teaching and research. Many current and past African IT projects have focused on providing the cheapest form of Internet connectivity and catered primarily to those predisposed to computers. Internet connectivity has become more prevalent in Africa and promises to be less expensive and even more ubiquitous as new satellite technologies are introduced in the next few years. Many African universities are increasing their investment in computers and networks and, with the price of equipment and software continuing to drop, more will do so in the next few years. We now need to focus on helping IT systems people deliver cutting-edge user-friendly services to a wide variety of end users – most of whom are not, nor never wish to be, steeped in computer knowledge. (Just like his or her Western counterpart, the typical African arts and sciences teacher or student simply wishes to be productive in their chosen area of interest without learning arcane operating systems or conquering kludgy software.) After ten years of implementing PC networks on American campuses, we can now look back on our track record and ascertain which strategies engendered better results. Learning from these lessons, African universities can forego some of the painful mistakes of their Western predecessors. Meanwhile, several African institutions have developed local area networks and Internet connectivity in the last five years. A concentrated effort to document and assess their undertakings and outcomes will inform the decision making process for other African universities. Finally, there are predicaments and opportunities that are unique to the African context. Centrally developing and disseminating information technology solutions that will be widely applicable across the African scene will hasten progress for all. The Nigerian Situation Nigerian universities have been practically decimated by the past two decades of economic and political upheaval. The Nigerian university system, once well respected around the globe and envied by others in Africa, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Now it is left to a new generation of university administrators and professors to rebuild their capacity and their reputation. Nigeria's much heralded return to democratic rule in 1999 has left many in the academic community hopeful that they will once again have the resources and the freedom to reinvent their teaching and research missions. Nigerian universities remain essentially unscathed by the digital revolution that has swept through academia in the past decade. In the digital realm, many Nigerian universities represent a blank slate. In most countries, the universities are depended upon to deliver to the marketplace and ever-growing cadre of young professionals who have mastered digital technologies and diffuse them into the public and private sectors. While many Nigerian universities offer one form or another of computer science programs, few of their graduates can offer contemporary or relevant expertise and very few have had practical experience with modern equipment and software. Given the radical and rapid technological change and the increased and intensive digitization of virtually every realm our human endeavor, it is imperative that the next generation of Nigerian professionals have broad understanding and practical skills with these digital technologies. At the same time Nigerian scholars and researchers need to have access to the enormous wealth of online information, scholarly journals, and digital collaboration opportunities. Yet providing Internet connectivity and e-mail access to the hundreds of thousands of Nigerian academics is a formidable challenge. While it may be tempting for university administrators to look to an outside source for an off-the-shelf and immediate solution, the key to sustainable and economical growth in these areas lie in developing Nigerian capacity to build, support, and expand upon these systems. So the overarching aim of this project is to develop just that capacity and Nigerian universities while at this same time encouraging and developing partnerships with the public and private sector to create broader opportunities for students to gain practical expertise. A Proposed Solution We propose to establish a center at the University of Iowa which will work in concert with a broad swath Nigerian universities to develop training, design computer systems, create and customize software, and conduct basic research to promote effective information technology implementation at Nigerian universities. The proposed project will build upon long-standing and successful institutional cooperation between the University of Iowa and Nigerian institutions, especially the University of Ibadan and the University of Jos. In proposing such a center we recognize several conundrums:
Thus we propose to establish a multi-disciplinary approach to our research and teaching. The project is based upon a shared interest in strengthening the research and instructional programs at the partner institutions. The training program outlined below focuses on the impact on the Nigerian institutions, but we intend to build on our experience in collaborative efforts over several decades that have had a significant impact on the research and teaching programs at the University of Iowa. We will draw on experts in intercultural communication, development support communication, management information systems, computer science, geography, and engineering. We also plan to promote the participation of professional networking and systems analysis experts to provide practical, real-world advice and training for Nigerian and Iowa participants alike. Decision Support Research and Consulting In the parlance of the computer trade, most African universities are “first time buyers.” First time buyers are notorious for making unwise choices – either buying or attempting too much or too little – whereas those who have struggled with their first wave of computer systems make savvier choices the second time around. Drawing on our own and other’s research and experience, we will assist participating African universities with making their system choices, actually helping them to test, configure and install their systems, and then follow up with rigorous training and consulting over a period of years to develop sustainable and appropriate systems. In developing their institution’s information technology systems, sometimes administrators need someone to consult them on how to develop their computer infrastructure and support systems. Some may benefit from being exposed to the myriad of options that have been developed at similar institutions. Other times they may need a core of support staff trained. In some cases, all that may be required is a clear and practical demonstration of how new information technology can be implemented. Others may simply need encouragement or concrete data from the experience of others to confirm their decisions. The NUDP will further assist Nigerian universities by securing site licenses, corporate donations, academic discounts, multimedia teaching resources, academic databases, and computer training materials. It will also circulate demonstration hardware and software and provide bench testing of proposed or new systems. The NUDP will train participants in writing their own grants and arrange for functional surplus and donated equipment to be shipped and deployed at Nigerian universities – working diligently to create linkages between donor and recipient departments to foster long-term collaboration. A Three-Tiered Training Approach We propose a three-tier training program for Nigerian university personnel with differing levels of responsibility for establishing and maintaining their institution’s systems. This program’s goal will be to develop a cadre of critical thinkers, technicians, trainers, and administrators, both Nigerian and American, to assess and investigate the use of information technology in Nigerian universities and to construct concrete tools for assessing, encouraging, and enabling its progress. We will identify exceptional candidates for training programs ranging from several weeks of technical training to multiple years of graduate level training. The programs will emphasize “on-seat” training in Nigeria as well as at the University of Iowa. To create redundancy within the NUC member institutions, the training will produce institutional team members with complementary skills and knowledge including a broad exposure to computer systems and development theory and practical experience. Finally, we propose to provide short-term “techno tours” for African university administrators and technicians to introduce them to new digital technologies and exceptional examples of information technology in U.S. academic institutions. We would couple these with guided study tours of events like COMDEX (the computer industry's largest annual convention), EDUCOM (the largest annual conference for educators using computers), and the Internet Society's annual meeting and workshops. Over this entire program will be a significant consultative effort aimed at providing decision-makers and support staff at both the national and institutional level, with cutting edge information and critical data. The individual program training tracks are described in more detail below: Innovator's (Administrators) Track Each semester a group of administrators, innovators, and decision-makers from multiple universities will be invited to participate in an on-line and CD-ROM-based correspondence course offered for graduate credit through the University of Iowa. (And eventually partner Nigerian universities.) The participants will be vice-chancellors, deputy vice chancellors, bursars, librarians, deans, heads of departments, professionals in physical and academic planning, as well as professors referred by their professional associations. Participants will be introduced to network and Internet information technology (IT) via the "Internetworks in International Development " curricula, modified slightly to suit the particular needs of higher education administrators. This curriculum already is aimed at decision-makers and managers who have a role in implementing IT and it has been used successfully at the University of Jos. The entire course comes on one CD-ROM (no Internet connection required) and two books. There is a significant email discussion component, so participants would need to have access to email. Via email and occasional journal reprints, the participants will be kept abreast of innovations and trends in IT in higher education, opportunities for funding and collaborations, as well as each other's progress. Once a year, a four-day workshop will be held in Nigeria at the headquarters of the NUC. This training will focus on several aspects of managing IT in academic institutions and hopefully serve as the seed for developing a professional association to further Nigerian university administrators. The NUC will identify, from those successfully completing the "Internetworks in International Development" course materials, those who will then be eligible to attend a "Techno Tour" in the U.S. This two-week tour will include:
and conclude with a guided tour of COMDEX or PC EXPO where participants will see the latest technologies in action. After returning to Nigeria, the participants will be encouraged to keep up-to-date by remaining in email contact with the instructors and other alumni of the course. They will automatically be subscribed to the course email list, where they will receive weekly updates from the course instructors. Technician's Track This track will focus on capacity building at the systems level and will involve the greatest number of participants. Given the unavoidable tendency for the private sector to “poach” trained technicians from the public sector, Nigerian universities, like their Western counterparts, need to “over train” – train more technicians than necessary with the understanding that many will leave the university. For this strategy to be effective, the universities must implement training schemes that are inexpensive, modular, and easily manageable. This project will address these needs by first identifying the pressing and common needs of the universities, helping them to work together to develop similar systems for cross compatibility, and then developing training programs which heavily utilize computer-based training (CBT), workshops, and vendor and NUC standardized certifications. Recognizing the past failures of schemes that involve universities sending select staff overseas for lengthy training and then losing them to the private sector, this project will emphasize delivering cost-effective training in Nigeria. Our aim will be to train ten technicians in Nigeria for every one of their counterparts who travel to the U.S. The Nigeria-based training effort will develop systems support staff and trainers on the ground at partner Nigerian universities. This will involve NUDP staff and/or graduates providing on-site instruction, supplying custom designed or off-the-shelf computer-based training materials, providing on-line consulting and assistance, helping to build on-line and in-country mutual assistance networks, and furnishing graduates with on-going information and demonstrations of new technologies or techniques. On the other hand, there is no denying that technicians working in the U.S. will have far greater access to equipment, technical support, and training resources than they will in Nigeria. In the U.S., technicians can secure new equipment or replacement parts in a single day at very little cost, visit with and learn from a wide variety of computer professionals, and collaborate with vendors and systems designers with ease. University of Iowa-based participants will be selected according to their potential to provide remote assistance and conduct research for their home institutions. After considerable prior “on seat” training in Nigeria, via Computer Based Training Modules, assigned readings, and practice with appropriate software, trainees will move to the University of Iowa for an intensive five-month training. They will gain practical experience, via on-campus and industry internships, in implementing and managing cutting edge network and Internet technology. The Iowa laboratory network the participants will work with will be, in every way possible, a mirror of the standard network at their home institution. The participants will be required to master network management, email and Internet services, as well as desktop applications. They will attend hands-on courses, have access to a large library of computer-based training (CBT) modules, and be expected to pass standard vendor professional certification exams. During their training, the participants will take course at the University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College as well as rotate through various internships with university departments, commercial computer vendors, and Internet service providers. They will be assigned to posts commensurate with their expected role at their home institution. (i.e. those expected to go into supporting administrative computing at their home institution may work in MIS, while those expected to work in multimedia development may be assigned to a multimedia teaching lab…) While attending the program, participants will be expected to provide technical support to their home institutions as well as other participating Nigerian institutions. They will use the Iowa computer lab to simulate and troubleshoot problems or test new technologies prior to their being deployed in the field. If the technician’s home university is implementing a new network, or expanding upon an existing network, these technicians may use part of their time the U.S. to purchase, configure, test, and master the equipment they will then accompany to their home institutions for deployment. Technical track participants will attend some of the theoretical courses offered to long-term students, but will be primarily trained in practical systems management. A great emphasis will be placed on training participants to teach the skills they acquire in the program. They will be introduced to practical pedagogical skills and required to make presentations to their peers in the program. Upon finishing the program, graduates will be accompanied to Nigeria by a University of Iowa instructor who will lead them in offering a national training in the skills they have recently acquired. They will then be encouraged, partially through financial incentives, to continue training at their home institutions. To foster greater self-reliance and ingenuity, participants in the technical track will be introduce to the wealth of on-line technical support and professional collaborators and expected to participate in multiple relevant newsgroups. Technical track participants will attend at least one major computer trade show during their stay in the U.S. to get a closer look at the major industry players and the up-and-coming technology. After returning to Nigeria, the graduates will be updated on a regular basis through an email list service provided by the instructors. All graduates will be encouraged to participate in a peer-to-peer email list to further their professional development and intra-university collaboration. The five-year goal of the project will be to move the lab, function by function as the capacity is built in Nigeria, to the NUC headquarters in Abuja. Master's Degree Track Masters candidates will be enrolled in a special segment of the Third World Development Support program at the University of Iowa. They will be exposed to communication and management theory as well as technology transfer and social marketing skills. This group of students will be trained in inventory control, systems analysis, and the management of information technology workers. At the same time, they will work in the Iowa computer lab and be expected to master all aspects of computer and network support. Masters candidates will be the primary support persons for Nigerian-based colleagues and will be required to devote a significant portion of their time in implementing, assessing, and refining sustainable support systems for all the participating Nigerian institutions. Each Masters candidate will be required to take a core of DSC and networking courses and then choose a particular field of interest (i.e. management, user education, computer-assisted teaching, systems design, distance education, etc.) They may take courses in their specialty area from a wide array of departments at the University of Iowa. Students will be expected to share their progress with their peers in the program on an ongoing basis. Finally, Masters candidates will be required to write a thesis that will address their area of specialization in the Nigerian or African context. Duration and Cost of Project The proposed project is envisaged as a five-year program. The system of training, implementing, and evaluating the personnel requires a long-term commitment although the project will be designed in several distinct phases of two to three years each. The Nigerian Universities Commission and the Vice Chancellors of several universities have indicated a serious interest in participating in such a program and funding their participants. This proposal seeks to fund the U.S. side of the proposal: trainer salaries, travel expenses, lab equipment, support staff, and teaching materials. The budget, depending on the size of the training program, would range from $250,000 to $500,000 per year. Project administrators will continue to look for outside funding and private sector collaborations to expand the scope of program and the number of participants. University of Iowa-Nigeria Collaboration The University of Iowa has a distinguished track record of collaboration with African universities, including a 30-year relationship with the University of Ibadan and a six-year relationship with the University of Jos. The University of Iowa has been host to dozens of Nigerian faculty and staff members, both as graduate students and as visiting professors. The University of Iowa has had a USIA University Affiliation grant with the University of Ibadan as well as a USAID University Development Linkage Program. University of Iowa faculty members, students, and staff have worked and lived in Nigeria and conducted research, taught, and provided technical assistance under the auspices of a number of private foundations, USAID, USIA, and United Nations programs and grants. As home to a unique Third World Development Support program, the Center for International Rural and Environmental Health, and the International Institute for Business, and the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, the University of Iowa is solidly committed to the internationalization of its curriculum. As well, the University of Iowa Hospital hosts the Virtual Hospital and the Rural Telemedicine Project, both prominent pioneers in employing digital communication technologies in teaching and patient care. Finally, the University of Iowa's Center for Teaching, Second Look Computing, The Information Arcade, and Hardin Information Commons provide cutting-edge resources and training for those desiring to create or deploy computer-assisted instruction. Summary This project attempts to provide a holistic and practical jump-start to the capacity building challenges that face Nigerian universities in the next few years. While the focus of this project appears to be technical, it must be remembered that the outcome is communication. Millions of academics around the world are participating in history’s largest and most profound collaboratorium. A conversation of epic proportions is taking place on the Internet and the voices of Nigerian and other African academics are largely missing. This project is all about building a bridge between Nigerian scholars and their counterparts in Iowa, the U.S., and throughout the world. The focus today must be on the hardware and hubris that make such a bridge possible. Once such a bridge is completed, however, its construction becomes a vibrant memory for those who toiled and its very existence is casually assumed and uncelebrated by those who travel upon it. It is these nonchalant travelers on whom we must focus: in the end it is expected that academic institutions on both continents will profit handsomely from fruitful and meaningful collaborations. Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country and promises, in its new democratic form, to be the economic engine that drives the continent. Of all African countries, Nigeria is best positioned to experiment with and develop these digital technologies to their fullest capacity in the African context. While many African universities are not financially and/or administratively ready to take the plunge into the digital Information Age, those that are already doing so will provide greater incentive for those who follow if they find demonstrable success in the next few years. Our immediate goal will be to assist these innovative Nigerian universities to build world-class systems and produce first class results. Our long-term goal will be to produce the basic research and train the next generation of computer systems designers that will hasten the appropriate adoption of digital technologies in African universities. Cliff Missen is a Systems Analyst and Instructor at the University of Iowa. He has taught and conducted research as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jos in Northern Nigeria. He has taught the course "Internetworks in International Development" for six years at the University of Iowa and this year is teaching it, via the Internet, to 48 students on three continents. Mr. Missen has 15 years of professional experience building LANs, training systems managers, and developing multimedia teaching tools at higher education institutions. As well, he has worked in West Africa on rural water development projects and has produced handbooks and videos on water well drilling. He received his B.A. from the Evergreen State College in Washington State and his M.A., in Development Support Communications, from the University of Iowa. Michael L. McNulty is Associate Provost and Dean for International Programs and Professor of Geography at the University of Iowa. Dr. McNulty received his B.S. (Ed.) degree from California State College of Pennsylvania, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University. Before he joined The University of Iowa faculty in 1969, Dr. McNulty taught at Indiana University; served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation Institutional Development Program; and served as an Urban and Regional Development Advisor in the Office of Urban Development of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has been awarded a number of research grants, travel awards, and fellowships; he has conducted research and technical assistant projects in a number of countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Jordan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Thailand, and Russia; and he has published extensively on research related to urban and economic development in Africa and other areas of the Third World.
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