1. Does ICT Matter for TVET community?
A Presentation to TVET Forum, Panafric Hotel, June 18, 2018,
Prof Meoli Kashorda, B.Sc (EE, UoN), PhD (ESE, University of Essex), MIEEE
Executive Director, KENET and
Professor of Information Systems, USIU
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation
Transforming education and research with ICT

2. What is Our Agenda TVETs presentation
Brief History of KENET as the operator of Internet and cloud services for members
Organization and Governance
Membership
Endorsement and recognition by GoK
Sustainability of high-speed and high-quality Internet services
Why the TVET community matters
Drivers of sustainability
Emerging Community Cloud Services
What services?
Why TVETs needs to move their ICT services to the community cloud
Office of the President Directive on Procurement ICT Services and Equipment
KENET Community
KENET history & governance
KENET mission and values
KENET as a catalyst for transformation of research and education in KE
Conclusions – How can KENET support your institutional transformation agenda through ICT
Research services survey
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

3. History of KENET
Meoli Kashorda
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4. KENET Trust Objects (1999- 2000) Five founder universities
provide a sustainable and high-speed Internet connectivity to educational and research institutions;
facilitate electronic communication among beneficiaries in educational institutions;
support sharing of teaching and learning resources among educational institutions;
support teaching and learning over the Internet for beneficiaries in educational institutions both in Kenya and outside;
collaborate in developing locally relevant learning materials in educational institutions; and
collaborate in research in educational and research institutions.
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

5. KENET Governance
KENET is constituted as a not-for-profit TRUST with 11 Registered Trustees
Seven Vice Chancellors + Director KMFRI; PS, TVETs ; DG CA; CEO Private sector (see for biographies.
Governed by Board of Trustees, Assisted by Management Board
Member institutions and academic community are the beneficiaries
KENET is a membership organization and only serves members
All KENET services are therefore VAT exempt because not considered a business
KENET licensed as a Alternative Network Facilities Network Operator by Communications Authority of Kenya since 2002
It builds and maintains the physical national broadband network
KENET is an implementation agent of the Government of Kenya and other donors (KTCIP, Google, Foundations etc)
Partnerships for research and infrastructure expansion
KENET is endorsed as the National Research and Education Network for Kenya by Ministry of Education
Largest African NREN in Africa after TENET in South Africa in terms of Internet traffic distributed (Internet bandwidth subscriptions now 18 Gb/s )
Exchanges traffic with other NRENs in the world at NO cost
Connects member institutions to Global Internet and Global Research & Education Networks
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

6. KENET’s Mission & Values
To catalyze the transformation of education, research and administration of the KENET community using ICT and high-speed Internet
Values
Community focus, diversity, ethical behavior, innovation, and openness
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7. Meoli Kashorda
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8. KENET as an Academic Community for KE
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9. Status in June 2018
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10. KENET recognized as part of National Innovation System of Kenya Source: STI Policy and Strategy 2014
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11. KENET as Academic Community Network
Uniquely Provides end-to-end connectivity for members
Campus networks to global Internet in Europe
Campus networks use Internet addresses allocated for FREE by KENET
Capacity building of institutional ICT staff
Platinum customer of all major operators for leased lines and international circuits
SEACOM, Safaricom, TKL, Liquid Telecom, JTL
Small institutions benefit with superior support from leased line providers
Collects Annual Core Data of Connected Member Institutions
Data-driven advocacy
“Conducts E-readiness Survey” of connected universities since 2006
Tool for communicating with leadership
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation
Transforming education using ICT

12. KENET Connects Remote Institutions at 1 Gb/s speeds
KENET operates data centers
Meoli Kashorda
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13. Weighted prices have been falling since 2009 – The larger the community the prices
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14. KENET NOC and Community Cloud
KENET operates a fully automated NOC
Customized open source engineered locally
Operates a fully-fledged community cloud
Top customers are ICTA, HELB and Aga Khan Hospital
Virtual labs for researchers and educators
Three Tier-3 Data Centers – UoN, USIU and CUEA
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15. KENET Community Cloud Services for TVETs
Infrastructure as a Service
Virtual machines with storage for hosting applications like LMS
Disaster Recovery sites using leased virtual machines (with dedicated high-speed links)
Collocation services
Collocate your Disaster recovery or ERP infrastructure in KENET data centers
Storage as a Service
Leased storage capacity for backup; with dedicated high-speed links
VPNs between institution and banks or between campuses
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

16. Campus Direct Engineering Services and Technical Advisory Services
Campus network optimization and management
Includes WiFi network management with automated database authentication
Campus Network audit, redesign and preparation of RFPs
Experienced engineers;
Good RFPs  No procurement appeals
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

17. Core Data Collection, E-readiness and Benchmarking
Annual core data collection
Know Your Members data
ICT expenditure trends, advocacy and infrastructure project proposals
E-readiness survey of universities (and next TVETs )
Laptop/smartphone ownership
Quality of ICT services
ICT indicators for management (e.g., bandwidth per 100 students, affordability, ICT human capacity etc. )
Benchmarking services for peer institutions (e.g., KIST & Thika TTI)
Only possible with advanced data analysis
Full-time statistical analysis team at KENET
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

18. Educational Technology Services
Teaching with technology skills development
Facilitating shared content development
Remote teaching
Specialized cloud software for teaching technical skills (AutoCAD or MATLAB or equivalent open source software)
Educational technology mini-grants (up to Ksh 1 million) for lecturers
Customizing Learning Management Systems
Customization of Open source Moodle platform
Hosting LMS
Technical design and management of classrooms for remote teaching / webinars
With free web conferencing platform
Cameras, servers, audial/visual setups, security etc
Sharing of lecturers in the community?
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

19. “Procurement” of ICT services through KENET or GoK framework?
Member institutions subscribe to KENET member services
Internet or cloud services
Technical advisory services
Institutions that were part of 2007 KTCIP / World Bank funding ”committed” to subscribe to Internet / cloud services for sustainability
No tenders from public universities
New institutions require KENET to respond to tenders or RFPs
KENET responds; prefer institutions close to KENET nodes
Future Joint TVETs ICT funding my Ministry of Education
shall require advance commitment to subscribe to services for sustainability
KENET endorsed by Ministry of Education as the NREN of Kenya
Ministry of ICT recently endorsed KENET as an implementor of the GoK Directive on Procurement of ICT services or equipment
Either your institutions is part of KENET community or procures ICT services as part of the larger GoK framework
Which do you prefer? Consider support of services
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

20. Sustainability of KENET services
Internet bandwidth services
How can our Internet services remain competitive in KE?
We build specialized network using leased government fiber, LTK dark fiber, and bulk procurement of leased lines (aggregate demand)
Responsive and superior support services - we have only 128 members to serve + skilled engineers
How about cloud services and data services and capacity building?
Engaged in cloud readiness development of members
Data centers hosted by universities – community supports the services
Skilled engineers in this “new” cloud infrastructure area
All equipment and long-term international circuits owned by members
Predictable future prices that are likely to keep falling as ownership increases and community grows
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

21. What services do you need?
Basic Internet services?
Training and facilitating content development by lecturers?
Shared ERPs or administrative systems?
Cloud-based technical software?
Is ICT changing the way TVETs run – teaching, administration, learning?
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation

22. Conclusions
KENET builds and operates broadband network for member academic institutions
Foundation is a broadband national network and data centers
Resources are shared and increasingly community cloud-based (i.e., outside TVETs data center / server rooms and equipment)
KENET is also a human network, an academic community
Special Interest Groups building expected to spur collaboration
Has a budget for organizing capacity building forums for lecturers and ICT staff
KENET is now considered compliant by Ministry of ICT as implementor of aggregated of Internet and cloud services
Ministry of ICT supports the KENET community
TVETs can decide what other software or ICT services to procure as a group
Meoli Kashorda
TVETs presentation
Transforming education through ICT

23. Q & A and TVETs Survey 2018
Take some 10 minutes to complete the Heads of TVET institutions survey questionnaire
Meoli Kashorda
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24. Thank You www.kenet.or.ke Jomo Kenyatta Memorial
Library, University of Nairobi
P. O Box , Nairobi. /
Meoli Kashorda
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