Customizable Locolms Based Virtual Schooling System for Equity Learning Environment Appropriate For LDCS

Abstract

Through several Regional and International Declarations, it was emphasized that education should be a must for all. But the classic classroom mode of education, especially in the LDCs, cannot deliver on this premise because of low educational budgets to meet the corresponding increases in classroom space and training educators due to exponential population growth. The emergence of the ICT supported distance education provides an excellent way of addressing several such challenges. However, it still faces challenges in terms of providing equal treatment to both on-campus and on-line learners. Each category requires specific pedagogical methodologies and the institutions which offer both the traditional classroom and the distance education based courses have to design and run varying versions of the same programmes requiring parallel sets of resources and infrastructures. This paper discusses a virtual schooling model which enables the resources of the existing classroom mode to also serve remote learners. The objective is to preserve the academic culture of individual institutions and offer equity learning treatment to both the on-campus and on-line learners. The traditional classroom mode has several limitations but it has obvious advantages over the distance learning systems too, notably the face-to-face interaction between learners and instructors. This paper discusses an adoption of the characteristics of traditional classroom mode to avoid parallel sets of resources and infrastructures. It is achieved through employing the LoColms [1], a learning management system that supports the scenario of virtual schooling where online learners enjoy cheap rich full-motion video of real class sessions. The system achieves the synchronous characteristic of traditional classroom mode asynchronously. Its goal is to make university education affordable to all. The cost reduction and harmonized learning environment comes from employing Proxy Cache Servers, random selection examination questions and online banking techniques, as well as the Point-to-Point communication Protocol (PPP) Technologies over the PSTN, which may be required where
data network infrastructures have not yet reached, a possibility in a number of the least developed countries.