E-learning in fragile context: pilot project in Côte d'Ivoire
© 2023 EPFL
As part of a collaborative project with the association Unité, a team of EXAF members was in Côte d’Ivoire last week. Diverse technological solutions were tested to ensure that all can remotely access to a high-quality education. The results are extremely promising.
In collaboration with the association Unite, EXAF is leading a project, which aims at improving access to distance education in areas with low Internet connectivity. The objective of the project is to develop a tailor-made digital education system considering the needs of teachers and learners in terms of infrastructure, teaching materials and skills. This project is co-funded by the SDC as part of its programme contribution to Unité.
A pilot project was conducted last week in the small town of Azaguié, North of Abidjan. The EPFL team experimented distance learning solutions in a secondary school that is a partner of ACSI, a partner organisation of SAM global, which is a member of Unité. In this project, only a minority of the students owned smartphones to follow classes remotely. Therefore, tablets were made available to ensure that everyone has an equal chance of success at school.
Under the supervision of Ximena Salgado Uribe - IT specialist, and Frédéric Meylan - Project Manager, the solution tested in this context is based on optimizing the size of the files used via a web application combined with the use of an accessible and robust nano-computer which acts as a hotspot.
Many thanks to Unité, SAM global, ACSI (especially Sylvain Momo) and Collège Lumière Azaguié (Ousmane Coulibaly - Founder of the Collège, Gédéon Kouman – Director of the Collège, Bi Nandy - Professor and Diarra Issoufou - Computer scientist) for their valuable contribution to the success of the pilot project. And above all, a very big thanks to the students whose enthusiasm for this project was a pleasure to witness!
