Abstract:

In developing countries, deploying National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) infrastructures is viewed as a determining step for fostering science and education. In most cases, these countries are still scientifically and technologically immature, largely due to the lack of qualified human resources, the economic dependence, and the lack of a consistent system for managing science, technology and higher education. NRENs represent crucial vehicles to stimulate regional and international scientific collaboration, by allowing the nationwide linking of universities and research centers, and access to scientific applications and data. NRENs also promote distance learning and other key services related to the activity of education and research.

In Africa, several NRENs initiatives have been promoted, having as critical success factors: (i) NREN deployment coverage; (ii) NREN sustainability policies; and (iii) the services provided to the enrolled community. The AfricaConnect project is one of the examples of the international collaborative effort, supported by the European Commission (EC). AfricaConnect allowed to interconnect NRENs in sub-Saharan Africa to an international network of high capacity, fulling the goals of the UbuntuNet Alliance (the regional research and education network in East and Southern Africa).

The aim is that African students and researchers benefit from high-speed, reliable broadband connectivity and services, such as eduroam, access to innovative e-learning tools and advanced research resources, and collaborative learning and research with peers around the world. However, the implementation and application of e-learning are still taking the first steps in African countries. Despite the shortage of resources, infrastructures and access to information, many African countries have shown an interest in implementing e-learning to foster scientific and social development. This led to the definition of national and African Union projects and strategies in the e-learning context.

Despite the initiatives taken so far, and especially the projects implemented in Mozambique, they lack a more comprehensive view of the implementation of e-learning. The problems identified reveal the need to create a common platform that benefits the entire academic and scientific community, with Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet) as primarily responsible for promoting the production, distribution and consumption of educational, cultural or entertainment content in a national audiovisual format. The use of e-learning tools and resources in digital format aims to improve the access to information especially for users in remote locations, allowing the academic and scientific community to share educational and scientific content at any time and in any place.

In this context, this article aims to discuss the NRENs panorama in Africa and analyze the challenges inherent to providing sustainable distance learning services for the NRENs academic and research community. In particular: the contextualization of distance learning initiatives and directives in the framework of Mozambique will be explored; the barriers and weaknesses for the improvement of the Mozambican higher education system will be identified; the role of MoRENet and international e-learning collaboration will be stressed; finally, proposals for the effective deployment of distance learning strategies to overcome the identified challenges will be presented.

Keywords:

Distance Learning, NRENs, Higher Education, Science and technology.