e-Learning Using Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks to Support Teaching and Learning in Rural Zambia

Zambia is faced with a widening gap in the provision of education between urban and rural areas. E-Learning also known as online learning maybe the solution to the learning and teaching challenges experienced in rural Zambia. These challenges include among many others, the lack of qualified teachers and ICT infrastructure to provide interactive learning. Although rural areas in Zambia are lagging behind in terms of ICT infrastructure as compared to urban,our research showed that the number of people using mobile computing devices in both rural and urban Zambiahas grown significantly. The nature of these mobile devices makes wireless networks the easiest solution for their interconnection. This paper proposes the use of wireless ad hoc networks to provide e-Learning for people in rural and remote areas of Zambia. In our proposed system, wireless Ad hoc networks will be used for the dissemination of various types of educational data. Each of the villages or rural area should have at least a Telecentre (acts as a sink) which is equipped with computers including multimedia for storing acquired data. The necessary educational information could manually be entered into these computers. People in rural areas could then get access to this information by wirelessly connecting their mobile devices to the computers in the Telecentres. This will in turn bridge the gap between people of rural and urban Zambia and be able to provide education to the majority of Zambians in an interactive way.