The current student computer labs at Mekelle University are exclusively Windows desktop PCs. Given the magnitude of the piracy and the effects of computer viruses, at any one time up to three quarters of the PCs in a lab may not be working. The lab IT technicians spend a huge amount of time keeping the labs running at all. With this in mind, the Digital Campus project is focused on using open source technology.

With the open source software and operating system alongside the thin client architecture the project is employing, we hope that the number of working terminals will be vastly increased and the time spent on lab maintenance will be greatly reduced.

The University ICT department already uses Debian and Ubuntu (open source operating systems) for their servers so there is already some experience by the IT staff in maintaining Unix based operating systems. So far though the use of open source operating systems has been limited to those with the most IT experience. Digital Campus hopes that we can encourage less technical staff to also make more use of open source software.

An elearning server, using Moodle is already running at the University, bringing the possibilities of online and blended learning. Moodle, one of the most popular open source virtual learning environments (VLE), is used by thousands of schools, colleges and universities around the world. The current Moodle server has been running for the last year, hosting courses for the Computer Science department and the Business Faculty. The Digital Campus project will widen this out to be used by the Engineering and Health Sciences Colleges.

The operating system for the Moodle server has already been changed from Windows to Ubuntu and the physical seer has been moved to the main University data centre where the power supply is more regular and a backup generator is available during power shortages. Currently the server is available on the university network and on the general internet.

By showing the current students that open source software is just as usable and functional as their proprietary counterparts, if not more so, the Digital Campus team hopes these future teachers will use open source tools when they come to develop online activities for their own courses.