The University of Alcalá (http://www.uah.es) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (http://www.aecid.es) is kicking-off an innovative e-learning and digital campus pilot project at Mekelle University, Ethiopia (http//www.mu.edu.et). The purpose of this pilot is to build an operational e-learning environment and thus create a hyper-scalable model which can be used in other Ethiopian and emerging countries universities in the near future.

This pilot, involving approximately 20 tutors (from each of Health Sciences and Engineering faculties) and 400 students, will run for the coming academic year. In the next few months we’ll be setting up the labs and providing general e-learning training to the tutors so they can develop their skills in using electronic resources in their teaching.

To achieve this goal, this project would offer a complete Digital Campus Infrastructure design, implementation, training and supporting elements solutions to Mekelle University:

• Enabling academic staff to take the lead in developing and delivering e-learning.
• Providing appropriate ICT resources to implement the strategies, at both faculty and University levels.
• Using on-line, computer-based assessment that will be robust, secure and efficient in staff time, and which can support learning and assess student performance.
• Providing a robust and intuitive Managed Learning Environment (Moodle).
• Supporting research at UM by extension of current e-tools
• Continuing to carry out research into e-learning at UM to ensure that it becomes a recognized centre of excellence in this area in this continent.