In late January 2013, ESIGELEC set up a videoconference lesson system with teacher Hervé Henry and the Higher Institute of Electrical Engineering* in Burkina Faso. Three 2-hours sessions on the theme of fibre optics took place on 29 and 30 January, attended by some fifteen students.

The students come from a Building Works Engineer class for students who have completed 3 years of university study. Two screens are projected onto their classroom wall: they can see their teacher on one screen, and the PowerPoint presentation on the other.

On the teacher’s side, Hervé Henry has two computer screens, one to see his students, the other showing his PowerPoint presentation. He can make his camera pan back and forth and zoom in on faces, by remote control. The microphone and sound output enable him to ask questions and hear answers, making his lessons interactive.

The experiment is already a success and there are plans to repeat it in other classes.

*ESIGELEC helped create the ISGE BF, a project funded by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Craft in Burkina Faso and a number of businesses (Sonabel, Onatel, Brakina…), with the support of the Burkinabe and French governments.

Contact : Hervé Henry, Head of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, herve.henry@esigelec.fr