Zimbabwe Open University Utilizes Synapse to Deliver Web-Based Education Across the Country

Zimbabwe Open University, the only distance and open learning institution in Zimbabwe is a multi-disciplinary institution offering degree and non-degree courses through distance teaching to youth and adult learners. The university, established to provide education to disadvantaged people, draws its students from impoverished rural areas across the country, far away from the University of Zimbabwe - the country’s only residential university with full-time students.

To educate over 30,000 students in multiple satellite locations spread over the ten provinces of the country, Zimbabwe Open University embarked on a lofty goal – to deliver a majority of learning via the web by 2009. In a country with one of the world’s lowest teledensities of 2.4 lines per 100 people and very rudimentary internet presence, the solution meant developing the country’s first wide area network using fiber links among the regional centers of Zimbabwe Open University. The second component was to purchase a powerful course management system that could deliver learning and coordinate the logistics of enrollment, grades, and reporting management. Zimbabwe Open University’s research into high-performance course management systems yielded solutions with unaffordable price tags in the high six digits.

Following a meeting with Dr. Primrose Kurasha, Vice Chancellor of Education at the university, Lance Technologies decided to donate Synapse, its course management system used at various higher education institutions across the United States. According to Akash Desai, VP of Business Development, it is the perfect opportunity to aid in nation-building on a small scale. “Having grown up in Africa, I truly believe that the path to political stability lies in economic progress and a broadening middle-class base. The path to economic progress, in turn, lies through education.”

For more information, contact:

Akash Desai
VP, Business Development
Lance Technologies LLC
1-800-520-2969 ext. 703
E-mail: akash@lance-tech.com