The Acting Director, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Dr. Francis Osang, has said that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters, is poised to bequeath a strong infrastructural legacy to support the operation of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Nigeria in general and NOUN in particular.
Osang made the disclosure in a chat with NOUN News on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at the Port Harcourt Study Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when he led a special team of Vice Chancellors’ Special Project Assessors to the centre.
“The Vice-Chancellor has decided to leave a legacy of lasting infrastructure in NOUN in support of the operation of ODL,” he said.
The ICT Director explained that one of such infrastructures the VC has in mind is the installation of high-speed internet to enhance learning, resource management and administration; ODL being ICT-driven and ICT mediated.
He emphasised that the Vice-Chancellor has secured the sponsorship of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to install internet system at 22 study centres across the country and connect those centres to the University Headquarters in Abuja.
According to Osang, the technology adopted to enhance speed and efficiency of the installations is Fibre Optics Technology, while Virtual Private Network (VPN) will be provided to transmit resources to staff and students at the connected study centres from the headquarters.
“The provision of VPN will enable resources that can only be used by learners within the country to be extracted from the Cloud Storage System for internal usage, while critical resources meant to be accessed across the world will remain stored in the cloud,” the ICT expert added.
Osang further stated that Benin, Port Harcourt and Uyo Study Centres have been selected for the project in the South-south geopolitical zone in this roll out phase, while other centres would be added as management monitors, evaluates and ascertains the efficient performance of the first phase of the project.
He added that when the system is switched on in a short moment from now, staff and students at all the hooked-up centres would no longer use their personal mobile data to access resources as the VPN would grant them high-speed internet connectivity within the centres.
The team, which comprised Dr. Francis Osang, Acting Director, ICT; Arc. Akueshi Enyinanya, Acting Director, Works and Services; Mr. Adeboye Adewoyin, Special Assistant to VC and Mr. Gani Peter, Senior Network Engineer, from NOUN Headquarters; as well as Mr. Olosunde Penle, Mr. Ikechukwu Okafor, Mr. Ashioma Michael, Mr. Nkwo Isaiah and Mr. Anthony Godfrey, all from Phase 3 (the company handling the installations) was led on a facility tour of the study centre by the Centre Director, Dr. Theresa Ucheoma Ettu.
The tour enabled the visitors to inspect work done so far especially in the server rooms and at the cable pits outside the building.
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