A new dawn of virtual learning is setting in East Africa as the education sector adopts e-Learning. UUNET Kenya, the leading business communication solutions provider in Kenya in partnership with Strathmore Business School (SBS) joined forces to spearhead the school's first virtual classroom.  While originally created for distance education, virtual learning is most often used to supplement traditional face to face classroom activities, commonly known as Blended Learning. The end result of this is where several students are taught at the least cost possible. 

A virtual classroom programme encompasses a collaborative video conferencing solution that enables one to communicate synchronously using video and audio or through text chat, and to share presentations, documents and images on an interactive whiteboard with students in remote areas able to log-in using their  computers.  The high end solution that has been in use at SBS has a potential of improving Kenyan education standards.  A virtual classroom enables approximately 100,000 students in different locations to be in the same class at the same time by connecting to the classroom via their computers from different locations. The students can listen and learn via voice, watch the professor write on the electronic white board, pose questions via chat/email and view related materials during class time to facilitate learning.  The revolutionary educational video conferencing solution can support homework submission, immediate Web-based testing and examination of students and quick links to chat rooms for after-class student discussions on every aspect of the professor's points that day. A university or institution adopting this system could also eliminate 70 percent of their facility, faculty and administration costs, overnight as the need for many facilities is done away with. The video conferencing solutions by UUNET Kenya are opening room for Virtual education in Kenya. Faculty at Strathmore is now able to give instructions in a learning environment where lecturer and student are separated by time or space, or both. SBS lecturers now provide course content through course management applications and multimedia resources. Strathmore Business School, the first institution to acquire the video conferencing solutions 3 months ago are now able to show documents, photos and high images when learning. The programme has also enabled the institution to share printed documents, give power point presentations and record entire meetings and lectures on video. Strathmore has a chance to expose its students to international faculty, cutting travelling costs while improving the quality and effectiveness of education. Other universities could soon have access to this revolutionary technology. Kenya College of Accountancy (KCA) University is set to acquire the video conferencing solution soon and will be the second university institution to embrace the technology.