An internet portal service that started out pooling scholarship information for students is set to become one of the most extensive database for schools, teachers and students.
Edustars.net launched as the newest electronic learning portal in Abuja at the weekend, after starting off late last year in Kaduna, with promise to help school administrators deliver learning materials and help students to use them online and offline.
Edustars chief executive officer Sanusi Saidu said the portal chose an electronic platform considering the “best way to provide it [information] to that it is universal, so anybody can access it and the cheapest way to make it affordable.”
“We want to make use of opportunity provided by technology and the internet,” he said.
Schools get unique domain name and retain administrative control of a personalized organizational site, but teachers and students can also get personal sites and pages on the portal.
Schools can publish academic calendars and admit students at the same time as moderate subject-specific forums for students.
Students in turn get to see their individual lecture timetable on their personal page, get access to multimedia files on study subjects and topics, and take personal or group quizzes at their desktop—with added freedom to instant-message classmates and teachers.
“It is one thing to have access to internet, but you spend valuable time trying to locate information you need,” said Saidu. “So we provide focused information based on the curriculum, and it will contain everything they [students] need.”
The portal incorporates a “knowledge base”—an online reservoir of academic articles from students—a “hall of fame” that displays the best students based on their academic record pulled through the portal backend, from where students and their parents can be automatically mailed confidential end-of-year results.
Online version of the portal will cost schools internet bills but offline modes target schools in more remote areas where the software would be loaded onto school computers and local area networks.
Some 13 schools are already signing up for the portal described as a “one-stop shop for schools,” according to Saidu, since it launched in Kaduna.
