2.3: Problems and The Way Forward

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Despite the information technology boom, several universities in developing countries are not taking advantage. Some of the documented problems and proposed solutions are as follows:

Some Problems in Developing Countries	Proposed Way Forward
Inadequate financial resources	Finances should be created by careful budgeting and by seeking funds through collaborative projects with advanced countries.
There is not enough digital support for academics	Yes, but we are the ones to generate resources, as above!
Depth of IT skills a limiting factor	True; academics should attend short courses and/or learn the same from the websites.
Lack of time and workload problems	These are universal problems; we should be active 24/7 to overcome this problem.
We don’t know what we don’t know	If we realize this fact, we have no excuse to relax. Let us conduct awareness sessions for staff members.
Students don’t take it seriously	This is not true; students are ahead of the lecturers in IT skills and in their desire to work seriously and long hours.
Lack of knowledge about infrastructure and support	Computers with multimedia software, sound, video, graphics, and storage of several GB, double, etc. are required.
Vandalism and loss of expensive equipment from laboratories	Better security arrangements, vigilance and stakeholders’ cooperation.

Proposed Effectiveness Study

It is proposed to undertake a comprehensive effectiveness study in order to establish whether or not a virtual studio is as good, worse, or better than a real-life studio. Such studies are indeed necessary in the advanced countries, which are going full stream with the new technologies. An effectiveness study, similar to the one conducted by the author (Kumar, 1999 and 2000), is proposed to be conducted in Afro-Asia as to whether virtual design studios are making any difference. The techniques of the control group vs. experimental group, together with observational studies, will be employed. It is intended that a null hypothesis that “a virtual studio is no better than a conventional studio” would be the starting point so that all the pros and cons of both come into play. Instruments of data collection will be based on the following:

observing students’ assignments
conducting pre- and post-tests
analysing responses to a questionnaire
conducting interviews of students
comparing students’ portfolios and reports
asking staff for their reflections
soliciting peer opinions and assessment.

Management of Virtual Studios

While virtual studios offer enormous possibilities, there are still some challenges which must be met with before implementation. The challenges include understanding and appreciation of the senior bureaucrats and technocrats like Directors of Information Technology on the one hand and Director of Research on the other. These are the management problems to be solved. While the former needs to establish a link with enhanced bandwidth and capacity, the latter may permit a special grant to conduct a comprehensive effectiveness study.

Construction of a virtual studio poses a special challenge because one has to use several different softwares to make an interactive site, where several designers can access and contribute to one another. Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash, together with Freehand appear to be leading us to explore further with AutoCAD 200 Plus and Adobe Photoshop. We are also exploring the use of 3D Max versions 4 and 5. One has also to settle for a different pedagogical paradigm which requires a change of mindset. A studio experiment (Al-Qawasmi, 2005, p. 205) was helpful in understanding the success in operating their computer-aided architectural designs studio and ARC 225 virtual reality in architecture.

Parallel models are being conceived to launch product designs from multiple locations with maximum permissible flexibility. Clearly, such a range of expertise is beyond a single individual in any one area, whether education, information technology, engineering, or design. It is, therefore, essential to constitute multidisciplinary teams under a well-conceived project to be funded by the universities wishing to get involved. I must add that the University of Botswana and the African Network of Open Universities have shown positive interest in the project, and they are in the process of identifying partners in Europe and other countries. Interested staff members should seek research grants in order to procure the items necessary for carrying out the experimentation and further study.