OVERVIEW OF COMPLETED AND ONGOING ELEARNING RESERCH PROJECTS

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OVERVIEW OF COMPLETED AND ONGOING E-LEARNING
RESERCH PROJECTS

• Presenter Sophie Mgaiwa

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Objectives

• Describe the background for introducing
  E-Learning at UDSM
• Describe features of E-Learning
• Describe E-Learning initiatives at UDSM
  (E-Learning Projects)
• Identify weaknesses in completed and Ongoing
  Projects
• Requirements for E-Learning
• Required resources
• Required structures
• Required Strategies
• Required Policies
• E-Learning research agenda

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Background

• Tanzania is unable to meet the developmental
  goals of the new millennium. The ever increasing
  population growth means that those seeking access
  to education at all levels primary, secondary,
  and tertiary will also increase.
• The government made an effort to improve access
  to primary and secondary education by expanding
  pupils enrolment through the Primary Education
  Development Plan (PEDP) and the Secondary
  Education Development Plan (SEDP) which started
  in 2001 and 2004 respectively

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Background cont.

• The introduction of these initiatives, although
  very worthy, has exacerbated the challenges faced
  by Higher education institutions in Tanzania
• Higher education institutions are not expanding
  enough to accommodate the increasing number of
  students who are the output of these projects due
  to the limited resources required to expand
  teaching facilities.

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• Currently only 30 of qualified high school
  leavers are able to join universities every year
  (MSTHE, 2004). This is due to a number of
  factors demand in education exceeds the
  institutions capacity to deliver increasing
  costs of quality higher education in overseas
  countries

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Why E-Learning at UDSM

• To increase access to affordable, flexible and
  quality education UDSM thought of introduction
  of E- Learning
• E-Learning is a viable means of delivering
  educational material at distance and residential

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Features of E-Learning

• Gives more people access to education
• Theoretically allows access to content anywhere
  and at any time
• Permits convenient and flexible learning
• Learners may study at their own pace
• Gives access to the latest information world wide
• Content is more interactive and engaging
• Learners do not depend on lecturers to deliver
  content
• Reduces training costs

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University of Dar es salaam

• Main public university in Tanzania which admits
  about 18,000 out of 46,296 admitted to all
  universities in the country
• University has 1,200 staff (academic, technical
  and administrative).
• There are over 50 programs offered, ranging from
  Certificate to Doctoral qualifications.

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• In 2007 the government of Tanzania established a
  public University in Dodoma (University of
  Dodoma) which is charged to enroll 40,000
  students. When fully operational however this
  may not be possible in the immediate future and,
  hence, UDSM is liable to remain the leading
  university

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E-Learning initiative at UDSM

• In 1998 the UDSM embarked on a Technology
  Enhanced Independent Learning (TEIL) program to
  integrate ICT in teaching and learning with an
  objective to provide an independent learning
  environment. This program, established an
  E-Learning platform (Blackboard), created some
  student ICT laboratories in faculties, with the
  aim of increasing access to the learning
  platform.
• In 2001 UDSM established the Instructional
  Technology Resources Unit (ITRU) as a
  continuation of the TEIL program aimed to
  incorporate pedagogical aspects in E-Learning.
  The activities performed by ITRU include staff
  training in the best use of ICT in E-Learning
  related education.

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• In order to improve Internet accessibility UDSM
  has increased bandwidth from 256kbps/512 kbps to
  1Mbps/2Mbps for academic use. Also, UDSM has
  recently upgraded the active components in order
  to enhance the network connectivity. The purpose
  being to enable staff and students to get better
  access to information within and outside the UDSM
  network
• .
• The implementation of ITRU project has
  established video conferencing facilities to
  enable concurrent teaching and learning on campus
  at the moment and beyond in the near future.
• The University has established a digital library
  through the University main library and is
  accessible from within and outside the university
  network. The digital library is a major catalyst
  for ODEL mode of delivery of academic programs.

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• UDSM was among the Universities in Africa
  providing AVU/RMIT on-line computer science
  programs and is also participating in offering
  AVU/CURTIN programs in business studies at degree
  and diploma levels.
• UDSM is one of the three Universities in Africa
  that has been selected to pilot Web-lab/iLab
  technology from the MIT (USA). This technology
  promotes web-based education for lab-based
  courses.

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• The University is the secretariat and is
  spearheading the Tanzania Education Network
  (TENET) where all higher institutions of learning
  in Tanzania are looking for effective use of ICT
  to improve the environment for learning,
  teaching, research and public services. Its
  objective is to build a foundation for the
  creation of a knowledge society in Tanzania
  through sharing of knowledge, experiences and
  resources. Among other issues to be resolved by
  TENET is the Internet bandwidth that is also a
  crucial issue for on-line education.
• The University, as a Lead Secretariat, has been
  coordinating a project conceived by the
  Consortium of Donor Support comprising four
  agencies (Ford Foundation, Rockefeller, Carnegie,
  and Macarthur), funded by the later and which was
  looking into modalities to provide adequate and
  affordable bandwidth to African Universities

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Weaknesses in completed Project

• concreted efforts made to integrate ICT in
  teaching became dormant.
• - E-Learning platform (Blackboard) and students
  ICT laboratories introduced by TEIL became
  dormant as no courses were delivered using this
  platform.
• -Even though some lecturers placed their
  courseware on the Blackboard E-Learning platform
  the facility has not been fully utilised. Hence,
  UDSM is currently supporting face-to-face
  teaching only.
• - Video conferencing facilities implemented as
  part of ITRU project became dormant too.

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• Running external programs at the University was a
  temporary solution and will not solve the entire
  enrolment problem. Therefore, there is a need to
  consider other ways of increasing access to
  higher education by delivering programs
  established by the UDSM to a number of students
  electronically

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Reasons for the weaknesses( GAP)

• The reason behind this is that there was no
  appropriate model (structure, strategies,
  resources and policies) to develop and deliver
  E-Learning programs at UDSM

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Required Structures

• Organisational Structures and Processes
• - CVL should be established as the core entity
  within the UDSM structure to enables maximum
  quality with minimal redundancy and cost
• -Accommodate more flexible student centred
  managed processes into organisational structures
  as E-Learning students will require new e-tools
  and practices to be in place to enhance and
  support their learning.

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Required Structures cont.

• The continued adoption of pedagogically sound
  E-Learning tools and practices within Faculties
  will require support and co-ordination at the
  Faculty level therefore there should be an
  E-Learning coordinator in every faculty to link
  the faculty with CVL.
• Studying in an online environment requires
  computer and internet access to learning
  materials. Therefore, the regional ODEL centre
  should be established to give students access to
  computers and the internet.

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Required Expertise

• For E-Learning to be implemented successfully
  both academic and technical/technological staff
  should have special E-Learning expertise. Special
  Expertise will also be required by learners
  (students)

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Required expertise by Technical/technological
staff

• Different set of skills are required to carry out
  projected E-learning tasks.
• There should be Instructional designers to act as
  course developers who provide both technical and
  pedagogical approaches that are effective to
  support students independent learning
• Other technical and professional staff such as
  web programmers and multimedia producers will be
  required to produce multimedia course contents
• There should also be people who support
  maintenance of computer hardware and software and
  hardware and other ICT equipment at all times

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Required Expertise by Academic staff

• A critical factor underpinning either the success
  or failure of any E-Learning is the preparation
  and enthusiasm demonstrated by the academic staff
  (Raymond, 2000).
• Academic staff who will be delivering ODEL
  programs they need to play different roles which
  require more skills compared to those needed for
  face to face delivery.

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Competencies required by the academic

• Competencies required to support E-Learning can
  be divided into competencies prior to the start
  of a course, competencies required during the
  course and competencies an academic staff must
  posses after the course delivery (Palloff
  Pratt, 2001).

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Competencies prior to the start of a course

• Academic staff members involved in the delivery
  of E-Learning courses must firstly have a mastery
  of the subject being taught. They must also be
  able to effectively create an E-Learning syllabus
  that meets the course requirements and
  effectively use whatever technology has been
  selected for the course.

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Competence during the delivery of the course

• Transit from their current role into the role of
  facilitator and overall manager of the course
• Develop an E-Learning community by promoting
  collaborative learning and encourage contacts
  between students and faculty Integrate students
  into the institution and its culture
• Maintain the momentum of the course
• Properly perform online students evaluation

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Competencies required by students

• E-Learning students should also be conversant
  with the specified technology before the start of
  the course so that they can easily access the
  contents and perform different tasks in the
  learning process using technology

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Required resources

• Human resource
• CVL requires sufficient staff and appropriate
  diversity of skills. Staff numbers should depend
  on the programs being offered by the University
• E-Learning staff should posses the capacity to
  generate high quality work and posses the
  multi-disciplinary capacity as many jobs will
  need the integration of various skills
• Training and development of staff is considered
  to be very important to make sure that the
  appropriate human resource is maintained, staff
  should be trained in order to improve skills,
  improve confidence and create positive attitudes.

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Required resources cont.

• Technical/technological infrastructure
• - The existing infrastructure can be expanded and
  /or added to accommodate the required ICT
  infrastructure for E-Learning. The capacity and
  quantity of technological should consider the
  changing needs of students, the pedagogy that
  must be applied to the content and the services
  required to meet these needs

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• Financial Resource (Funding)
• Appropriate funding will be needed to build the
  infrastructures required there should be an
  initial (seed) funding for the development and
  core funding for 5 to 10 years as appropriate to
  ensure continuity and longer-term research.

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Required strategies

• Reuse of E-Learning contents
• consider the reusability of content through the
  creation of learning objects. However, the focus
  on learning objects (LO should be on Generative
  LO (GLO) instead of Reusable learning objects
  (RLO). GLO have the following features
• - Productivity Creating new content based on
  existing patterns
• -Adaptability Learning objects are easy to
  adapt into new contexts

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Use of Open source software

• Consider use of open source software which can be
  customised to fit specific context of the
  University of Dar es salaam. This is because
  Universities in developing countries like
  Tanzania cannot afford high costs of commercial
  software.

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Criteria for choosing open source software

• Features and functionality
• The software should be selected based on its
  functionality, it should be analysed to determine
  its robustness, reliability, scalability and
  consider if it includes all the teaching tools
  needed to allow learning to take place
  effectively.
• Cost of Ownership
• Cost is also incurred to own free open source
  software. When selecting an LMS the cost, ease
  and duration of its implementation should be
  considered.
• Maintainability
• look at its maintainability to see how long it
  will take to maintain and administer at both
  server and program level, if processes automated
  can be easily integrated with other systems and
  determine whether the software can run on the
  platform in which the University already has
  excellent expertise. The source code should be
  examined to determine its openness and its format
  in which they are designed for easy modification
  and creation of new custom modules

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Required Policies

• There should be an institutional E-Learning
  policy to provide guidelines that will promote
  the development of E-Learning at the University
  of Dar es salaam. The policy should be the basis
  for which the University of Dar es salaam can
  adopt the standardised and structured approach of
  using new technology in daily activities.

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Features of E-Learning policy

• The Institutional policy should
• Define how the implementation of E-Learning is
  intended to confront challenges such as
  limitations on resources, increased cost of
  education and limited physical facilities
  available.
• Justify why E-Learning has to be implemented. The
  policy should state that E-Learning will be used
  as an approach or mechanism to achieve learning
  objectives and ensure the highest possible
  quality of education that is provided.

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Features of E-Learning Policy cont.

• Address the existing barriers to the
  implementation of E-Learning such as bandwidth or
  adaption of new methods of teaching technologies
  that are more facilitative by the academic staff
• Support structure for E-Learning by supporting
  the establishment of CVL to build and support
  E-Learning standards as well as building
  E-Learning capacity.
• Describe how E-Learning standards for the UDSM
  will be defined and adhered to in order to guide
  the development of E-Learning contents,
  structuring of programmes and the technology that
  will be used to support E-learning

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Development of an E-Learning research Agenda

• The implementation of E-Learning is a new arena
  for most higher education Institution. Different
  studies have showed challenges faced by
  institutions to implement E-Learning. Therefore,
  further studies are needed.
• in order to plan and direct research and evaluate
  its outcomes, a research agenda should sets out
  a list of proposed research activities based on
  some rationale
• Priorities is based on such rationales,
  institutional mandates, strengths/interests,
  funding opportunities and other circumstances.

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Identified research

• The advancement of ICT will affect the delivery
  to developing countries such as Tanzania.
  Constraints associated with these technologies
  should be identified and possible solutions
  should be formulated and tested.
• Innovative ways of using technology to increase
  learner participation and improve quality of
  education provided.
• Effective instructional design for different
  E-Learning environments (just in time,
  place-independent, on demand learning).
• The use of cellular telephone technology to
  support and enhance E-Learning.
• Best ways of acquiring competencies required by
  E-Learning instructors (formal training, on the
  job internship, collaborative reflection and
  discussion, or some combination thereof).