Barriers towards the adoption of a practical training management system at the University of Dar es Salaam

Shayo, Eva; Mwase, Christine; Kissaka, Mussa

doi:10.23919/istafrica.2017.8101975

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Research conducted by (Shayo, Mwase & Kissaka, 2017), reported the failure to adopt a system developed for university of Dar es Salaam regardless of the need of the computerized system for management and coordination of practical trainings. Lack of awareness of the system was revealed to be one of the reasons for the failure.…”

Section: Development Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of a Web Portal to Facilitate Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Field Attachment in Tanzania

Samwi

Kisangiri

Moebs

2020

J INFORM SYSTEMS ENG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the approaches applied by Higher Learning Institutions to equip students with the practical skills is through field attachment in relevant companies based on field of studies. There are so many challenges in the process of coordination and allocation of students to relevant companies including expenses in terms of time and resources due to prolonged process involved. A web-based portal was developed to address the challenges for Tanzanian context. The development approach based on Scrum framework was employed to allow users involvement. To ensure information completeness, mixed-methods approach including key informant interviews, observations and requirements workshop were applied for portal's requirements elicitation. The requirements determined from users were further used to guide initial interface designs which were then converted to clickable wireframe pages using pencil software. The prototype was sent to real users via email for testing and improvement suggestions before real portal development. Scrum development approach was employed where increments development progress were frequently inspected to detect undesirable variances. The portal was finally validated and tested for usability and indicated to have improved field attachment process and open doors for more collaboration between Higher Learning Institutions and companies. This study provides insight on the approach used to come up with the solution regarding current challenges. Moreover, the contribution that the research based solution has brought to the students' field practices process is identified.

show abstract

Section: Development Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of a Web Portal to Facilitate Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Field Attachment in Tanzania

Samwi

Kisangiri

Moebs

2020

J INFORM SYSTEMS ENG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research conducted by Shayo, Mwase and Kissaka (2017), reported the failure to adopt a system developed for university of Dar es Salaam regardless of the need of the computerized system for management and coordination of practical trainings. Users' awareness was revealed to be one of the reasons for the failure.…”

Section: Development Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated students, coordinators and companies system for students’ field attachment coordination for Tanzanian higher learning institutions

Samwi¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Work-based learning is what equips students with practical skills. All higher learning institutions (HLIs) have a specified period of time for students to carry out field based practices in companies which are relevant to their fields of study. As the number of students in Tanzanian HLIs become larger, coordination and allocation of students to relevant companies is becoming tougher. This study therefore intended to examine a better method to facilitate coordination and allocation of students to relevant companies through development of an online system. The research study to determine systems’ requirements was conducted in Arusha and Kilimanjaro by involving 62 HLI students, 3 HLIs and 5 companies. Data were collected using key informant interviews, observation and workshop. Both informative and descriptive information regarding current practices and desired features were collected and analyzed. The results show that, a platform need to have main features of Students’ profiles, companies’ information, application feedback, supervision reports, and assessment of students by companies and their respective HLIs to address the challenge. The features determined gave efficiency advantages to all three main stakeholders who are HLIs, students and companies. Prior to actual system implementation, collaborative prototype was designed using pencil software and shared to 5 users from each group to evaluate the tasks based on provided scenarios. To refine the requirements, responses from users were accommodated and the final prototype design was used to develop Field Attachment Management System (FAMS). The system was finally validated and tested for usability and indicated to have improved access by students to relevant companies, reports generation, students’ assessment and follow-up conducted by HLIs to their students.

show abstract

“…A considerable amount of literature has been published on technological barriers towards Elearning systems, which include lack of hardware infrastructures such as computers and software facilitators such as the appropriate LMS to implement for a particular community and compatibility issues bringing about a high depletion level of system implementation in universities and usage to both instructors and students (Bodsworth & Goodyear, 2017;Joseph & Thomas, 2020;Mostafa et al, 2019;Mtebe & Kondoro, 2016;Terzioğlu & Kurt, 2019). The lack of accessibility of the system due to network disruption and bandwidth expenses has affected both facilitators and students at a high peak to dissipate their performance, it encompasses of cost of bandwidth, maintenance of technical infrastructure and lack of funding for proper wireless infrastructures highlighted by various literature review (Shayo et al, 2017;Lashayo & Olahraga, 2017;Mostafa et al, 2019;Mtebe & Kondoro, 2016;Safford & Stinton, 2016;Terzioğlu & Kurt, 2019). Though contradictions show that in some HLI's slow or unreliable network issues were not the major concern that affected the use of LMS (Shayo et al, 2017) but considerable acknowledgement of existence of such a barrier can easily be dissolved by strategic design of networks that supports fast data transaction.…”

Section: Identification Of Existing Barriers Through Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lack of accessibility of the system due to network disruption and bandwidth expenses has affected both facilitators and students at a high peak to dissipate their performance, it encompasses of cost of bandwidth, maintenance of technical infrastructure and lack of funding for proper wireless infrastructures highlighted by various literature review (Shayo et al, 2017;Lashayo & Olahraga, 2017;Mostafa et al, 2019;Mtebe & Kondoro, 2016;Safford & Stinton, 2016;Terzioğlu & Kurt, 2019). Though contradictions show that in some HLI's slow or unreliable network issues were not the major concern that affected the use of LMS (Shayo et al, 2017) but considerable acknowledgement of existence of such a barrier can easily be dissolved by strategic design of networks that supports fast data transaction.…”

Section: Identification Of Existing Barriers Through Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several systematic reviews on policies towards E-learning acceleration and support has been undertaken to promote Open Education Resources (OER) but it still has to be implemented world-wide (Bervell & Umar, 2017a;Terzioğlu & Kurt, 2019). There is still a need to create policies that support the improvement of teacher's digital literacy, OER usage and experience, and the implementation of LMS initiatives which will help improve LMS's usability, communication between students and teacher through their own comfortable choice of language and later on supplement for other modes of pedagogical such as flipped classroom (Shayo et al, 2017;Lashayo & Olahraga, 2017;Moon & Villet, 2017;Mtebe & Kondoro, 2016).…”

Section: Identification Of Existing Barriers Through Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Usability and user experience of Moodle learning management system into higher learning of Tanzania

Mwengwa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to previous works, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have been facing obsolete rendering barriers such as accessibility of the system due to network disruption and bandwidth expenses, Digital literacy, user’s perception towards the use of an online LMS in taking a course, policies towards E-learning acceleration and support, Information literacy, technological barriers, lack of relevant technical training and assistance in using LMS for the instructors, LMS’s lack the ability to cater for the cultural differences, navigational issues, and misrepresentation of contents and insufficient content and credible resources. This study applied a mixed methodology and data collection was carried online, with sample survey of open and closed ended questionnaires and online interviews. Sampling technic used was snowball and the case of convenience which involved 338 participants inclusive of 112 facilitators/teachers and 226 students. Identified prominent existing barrier by users was navigational issues, and misrepresentation of contents, which associated user experience and usability issues, using an open and free learning management system Moodle, a “Jifunze kwa Moodle” prototype was created. Assessment was conducted to identify tools to be applied and improve user experience and usability in the final prototype of the “Jifunze Kwa Moodle” platform using Rapid Application Development. Online teaching and learning tools such as H5P and BigBlueButton were integrated into the platform to entice interaction between facilitator and students. The platform was shared, and only 20 users had accomplished the tasks assigned, thus 6 facilitators and 14 students. Users assessed the platform through task-based scenarios so as to accommodate responses and improve the platform, tasks such as initiating a class using H5P and BigBlueButton were essential for the instructors and students had to attend some sessions. Conclusively this study opens up the opportunity to engage in making learning management systems user friendly, interactive and simpler using online teaching and learning tools to accommodate different users’ need.

show abstract

Barriers towards the adoption of a practical training management system at the University of Dar es Salaam

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

The Role of a Web Portal to Facilitate Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Field Attachment in Tanzania

The Role of a Web Portal to Facilitate Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Field Attachment in Tanzania

Integrated students, coordinators and companies system for students’ field attachment coordination for Tanzanian higher learning institutions

Usability and user experience of Moodle learning management system into higher learning of Tanzania

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About