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CASE STUDY

ELEARNING EXPERIENCE IN A SMALL AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

Tags: African Universities, Webometrics, Moodle, Kenya, Strathmore University

Abstract

Strathmore University, in Nairobi, Kenya, started its undergraduate degrees with a Bachelor of

Business and Information Technology and a Bachelor in Commerce. From the beginning it tapped

the skills of the Information Technology Department and sought the most cost effective way of

enhancing the learning of the students. This was done through elearning. For this Moodle was chosen

Power Point was also introduced and its used encouraged among the faculty. SU had two tasks, to

entice lecturers to use both packages; and to entice students to also use them. The success of the

strategy was surprising; Webometrics ranked it the top University in Africa outside Egypt and South

Africa from 2007 to 2010 (http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=africa). Last

year the University started a Masters in Applied Philosophy and Ethics. Due to the constituency –

professionals of any field who continue working-the university agreed to tried a mixed based

program blending distant elearning with normal lectures in campus The paper gives the experiences

of training of faculty and students in using Moodle and Power Point; the difficulties encountered the

pedagogical advantages and disadvantages observed, and the current strategy being implemented.

1 Introduction/

In 2007 an university in East Africa hit the news; it was ranked highest university in Africa outside

Egypt and South Africa by the Spanish CSIC (Consejo Superior de InvestigacionesCientíficas). It

maintained this position from 2007 to 2010.

This was surprising because Strathmore is a relatively small university, very young, and with few

degrees on offer at that time.

This had immediate consequences. Many African universities took stock of what the founders of

Webometrics intended “We intend to motivate both institutions and scholars to have a web presence

that reflect accurately their activities. (http://www.webometrics.info/)

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Evidence of this is a staff paper at Makerere University which analyses its position in webometrics

versus Strathmore and University of Cape Town being the oldest university in East Africa

(established in 1922) in a staff paper (http://blogs.mak.ac.ug/staff/tag/webometrics/ ) .

According to our research SU good ranking is due to the quality of SU website and the use of

elearning. Here we are going to dwell only on the elearning component.

2 Background

2.1 Strathmore University

To appreciate Strathmore University’s use of IT for teaching and learning it is good to its history.

Strathmore University is one of the 14 Private Chartered Universities in Kenya. There are

another 7 Public Chartered Universities and another 9 Private Universities that operate with a

Letter of Interim authority from the Kenya Commission of Higher Education and two more are

Certified (cfhttp://che.or.ke/status.html). These 32 universities with their constituent colleges (19

as at end of April 2011 serve the about 145,000 university students ( Data at the time the

Handbook on Processes for Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Kenya, Commission of

Higher Education, Nairobi 2008 was published.http://che.or.ke/status.html), 85% of which study

in Public Universities. (Data at the time the Handbook on Processes for Quality Assurance in

Higher Education in Kenya, Commission of Higher Education, Nairobi 2008 was published.)

Name of University 2007Period July Jan July

Ranking Africa Africa Africa Africa World Africa World Africa World Africa World Africa WorldStrathmore University 50 21 18 12 16 2795 22 3623 31 3556 38 3704

Makerere University 59 32 20 3811 15 2685 13 2158 10 1402

Addis Ababa University 22 4055 30 4022 24 3166 48 4911University of Dar El Salam 25 4229 24 3750 22 3118 34 3415University of Khartoum 28 4371 45 4941 15 2208 24 2816University of Nairobi 25 22 29 4467 28 3897 26 3190 27 3136National University of Rwanda 27 52 5889 35 4310 28 3330 44 4596Egerton University 50 54 6266 66 6548 97 7153 >100Kampala International University >100 58 6510 >100 >100 >100Moi University 86 83 8284 74 6275 90 7,424Kenyatta University 84 100 9129 76 7189 80 6464 51 5,129USIU 78 6,786JKUAT 89 7,303

2011Jan

2008 2009 2010Jan July Jan Jul

Figure 1, Webometrics comparative ranking East African Universities

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Enrollment as at Dec 2010 No %UNDERGRADUATES 2,116 47%PROFESSIONAL 1,689 38%DIPLOMAS 410 9%MASTERS 282 6%Total 4,497 100%

Staff July 2010 NoAcademic 205Administrative 191Total 396

Of the 21,750 undergraduate students in the

14 private universities Strathmore has only

about 2,116 students (10% of the private

universities, 1% of the total). This indicates

that the University is small compared to

national and private universities.

Other indicators that SU is an emerging

university are; a) the number of degrees offered at present b)

type of degrees offered c) the recent granting of its charter d) its

recurrent budget. (When the Commission of Higher Education

in August 2002 granted SU the Letter of Interim Approval the

University offered only 2 undergraduate degrees (Bachelor of

Commerce (B.Com) and Bachelor of Business Information Technology (B.BIT). To date this

number has grown to 10 cfhttp://www.strathmore.edu/aboutus.php?id=43&Course=0 )

a) SU offers 10 undergraduate degrees, while the University of Nairobi offers 49, Kenyatta

University 41; The Catholic University of East Africa 24. (

http://www.kenyaplex.com/discussionforum/1424-University-of-Nairobi-Degree-

Courses.aspx ; http://www.ku.ac.ke/index.php/20112012-intake)

b) The degrees offered are mainly on business, economics, IT and accounting, that do not

require expensive laboratories and consumables;

c) The University obtained its Charter in 2008, barely 3 years agoSU Nevertheless offered

university degrees from 2002 when it go the Letter of Interim approval by the Commission of

Higher Education.).

d) The 2009 audited report shows a recurrent expenditure of Shs 953 million, equivalent to USD

12.6 million at 75.8 the mean rate of CBK at Dec 2009.

It also has a small land footprint. (42 acres) Situated in a low middle class income area on the

South West of Nairobi (see map), separated from the Nairobi Hill by the famous railway line

from Mombasa to Kampala which was the cause of Kenya’s existence A very readable paperback

that narrates the history of the discovery of East Africa and the construction of the railway is

“The Lunatic Express, An Entertainment in Imperialism”, by Charles Miller, MacMillan

Publishing Company (January 1971) ISBN-10: 0025849409) and not far from one of the biggest

slums in Africa were SU students do social work (Informal Settlements and the Role of

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Infrastructure: The case of Kibera, KenyaSamuel O. Akatch, Silvester O. KasukuDiscovery and

Innovation Vol 14, 1, 2002 ISSN: 1015-079X ; for a fast view check

http://www.kibera.org.uk/Facts.html).

The University started in a single

building (Phase I; 10,000 sqm

completed in 1993, when it was still a

tertiary college), later expanded

(Phase II, 12,000 sqm completed in

2,002 ), and now is in the process of

duplicating its surface (Phase III,

22,000 to be completed in August)

which makes a total of 44,000 sqm

including the library, auditorium and

three residences.

With this we can establish that

Strathmore is a young emerging university.

3 Mission and Vision and its influence in IT and Elearning development

Mission: To provide all round quality education in an atmosphere of freedom and responsibility;

excellence in teaching, research and scholarship; ethical and social development; and service to

Society. Vision: To become a leading out-come driven entrepreneurial research university by

translating our excellence into a major contribution to culture, economic well-being, and quality

of life. (http://www.strathmore.edu/aboutus.php?id=1)

SU involvement in IT is linked to its mission and vision. It is not possible nowadays to provide

all round education without the fundamental tools for learning, self-development and

communication which are computers and the internet. Quality education requires the most

advance methodology and instruments. It is difficult to think, even in Africa, that excellence in

teaching, research and scholarship can be achieved these days without an industrious use of

electronic technology. “Excellence”, a word that appears both in the mission and the vision also

requires state of the art instruments. Instruments alone are not sufficient the academia needs to e

value research as a means to contribute “to culture, economic well-being and quality the quality

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of life”. Excellence in an educational institution has two components, the content and the

methods. None can be neglected. None can be achieved in an excellent and effective way without

the use of IT. Scholars have to be both, good researchers and good teachers and for this they need

the right tools. IT at present offers the best of tools for any university in Africa.

SU, has an Academic Development Unit, which is in charge of ensuring that all lecturers have

excellent teaching skills, and the most suitable means to transfer their knowledge to the students

and a Research Service Office, which encourages all lectures to develop their academic status by

organising interchange of scholars among universities, attendance to congresses and symposia

and doing research.

In this paper we limit ourselves to the use of the electronic teaching technology in the University,

which we believe is somehow at the forefront of promoting this technology in East Africa, in

spite of its meagre size and resources.

4 The origin of IT in Strathmore University

The introduction of IT in Strathmore was very modest. In 1985 Dr. Joseph Sevilla, then a lecturer

of in the School of Accountancy lecturing on Operations Research, Management Mathematics.

He brought a Sinclair ZX Spectrum small computer from UK. It needed to be linked to the only

TV available. Later the School of Accountancy managed to buy Kaypro computer taking

advantage of a trip of the director to U SA. Later a second hand IBM computer from one of the

foreign embassies in Nairobi. He a few short courses for students on Programming in Basic.

These classes of computing attracted so much interest among the students that the School of

Accountancy decided to start preparing students for IDPM a UK professional diploma in 1989,

which later was discontinued when Strathmore started its own diploma DBIT and degree BBIT.

Strathmore was the first institution in East Africa to offer this Diploma. Now it is widely offered

by many institutions in East Africa. Strathmore is still offering it and it was the origin of the

present Faculty of Information Technology. It was also the beginning of the training in IT to

faculty members in electronic media.

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5 Development of the different areas of IT

SU has an integrated approach to IT, which tries to combine all its possibilities and expose all its

members (lectures, administration and students) to its benefits. This influences the lecturers’ and

learners’ approach to elearning, seeing it as a tool more of their academic pursuits. At present the

main IT areas are: E-management, E-communication, E-library, E-learning and E-teaching.

Rather than describing each in isolation we prefer to relate them as the students are exposed to

them. Learning and teaching are the core activities of the university and their main target are the

students.

5.1 The student’s experience

For many student’s the first contact with Strathmore University is done through the web site.

Many of them have done research on the courses and universities they want to attend using

cybercafés or the school or homes computers. Even if the internet penetration in Kenya is only

(10% of the population; KE - 40,046,566 population (2010),3,995,500 Internet users as of

Jun/10, 10.0% of the population, per ITU. 864,760 Facebook users on August 31/10, 2.2%

penetration rate. ) , those applying for Strathmore are mainly urban dwellers, and have more

connectivity. In Kenya the number of cybercafés is higher than in most neighbouring countries,

especially after the Government stop considering IT and computers as a luxury item and started

considering them a tool for development (now computers have zero rating excise duty since 2003

http://www.ciafrica.com/oindex/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=912:kenya-

leads-african-peers-in-computer-literacy&catid=23:publications&Itemid=43).

The website is attractive, regularly updated and unsupectedly was honoured in Australiac(The

University's website got an honourable mention in the 2010 Association of Commonwealth

Universities Public Relations, Marketing and Communications awards announced last month in

Melbourne, Australia http://www.strathmore.edu/News.php?NewsID=434). The University is

using some of the Web.2 elements, which allow students and guests to comment on the news and

articles posted (www.strathmore.edu). They can also follow events by subscribing to facebook,

twitter, of google buzz and about another 160 web integrators, some of which are synchronously

updated with the main web site.

On admission students are given their bar-coded ID card with their digital photograph and

students’ details. The card allows them to access the university facilities. In the library students

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access the catalogues directly on computers. The books borrowed are recorded in the system

using the bar-coded ID cards. Reminders are automatically sent to the students and lecturers by

email when books are about to be overdue. The IT department recently updated the system to

allow both students and lecturers to access the electronic books, international periodical

subscriptions and past exam banks from anywhere they have access to the internet. This was

made possible by the use of the open source KOHA ILS (http://www.koha.org/). Integrated

Librarian System, which was adapted to the specific needs of the University and is continually

being improved.

Students also benefit of the e-management systems put in place by the University IT department,

for example when paying fees, obtaining credit, etc. they use the open source internally modified

program KWALI which is the program to integrate all financial management.

Other areas of e-management include the kitchen and cafeteria, repairs and maintenance,

bookshop, and transport each with their own e-management system which have been developed

from open source code. The university tries, in as much as possible, to use and train students to

use, open source programs in order to make them more resourceful, tailor the programs to the

specific needs of the University and to make IT affordable.

All these systems are in a continuous process of maintenance, revision, development and open to

innovation, for example just few days ago SU has set up a service by which all students can pay

fees through their mobile phones using the Mpesa platform.

(http://www.strathmore.edu/News.php?NewsID=555)

To foster interaction and communication among students and between students and staff, each

student has a personal email account, which allows him to communicate with colleagues,

lecturers and administration using the internal email system. In order to facilitate communication

and improve the collaborative aspects of electronic education the University is in the process of

changing from an internal Exchange Server to Google Applications Gmail. This will facilitate

chats, video conferencing, group work, and storing of documents. It is also in the process of

integrating Moodle with Google Apps and with TurnIn platform.

Each student has also access to the AMS (Academic Management System) where they can see

online their attendance and academic records. The core of this system was donated by the

University of Navarre, and developed for the specific needs of the University by the IT

department over a period of five years.

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Students can pay for meals and photocopies in advance and use their credit electronically, thanks

to the open source system also tailored to the specific needs by the IT department. At present the

University is using 6 Kyocera TaskAlfa 420i KX linked to the intranet that can be used by all

students, lecturers and administrative staff from the University computers or from their laptops,

for all their scanning, faxing and printing needs.

Students are encouraged to bring their own laptops, especially those doing IT related courses.

The University has 90% wifi access and gives internet connectivity to all students and staff via a

optical cable through KENET (Kenya Education Network Trust; Kenya Education Network Trust

(KENET) is a National Research and Education Network that promotes the use of ICT in Teaching, Learning and

Research in Higher Education Institutions in Kenya. http://www.kenet.or.ke/)

So far we have spoken about the main e-management and e-communication, as background to

the e-learning and e-teaching experiences.

6 E-learning

We can consider e-learning at three different levels a) as the total IT experience students have

while at the University, and this includes all e-administration routines they are exposed to; b) in a

more specific way as any electronic mean to assist in the learning and teaching formal setting of

the lecture rooms and c) in a very restrictive way, as the specific learning management service

LMS they use which in Strathmore case is the open sources Moodle.

6.1 E-life

In the broader meaning, the IT overall experience has already been mentioned as the exposure

students have to e-management, e-communication and e-library system.

The University IT department is doing ample research and teaching on mobile applications and is

in the process of starting a degree on Telecommunication.

An aspect of this applied research is the use of mobile phones by some students and a number of

staff members as mini e-libraries where they carry the electronic version of the books they use

more frequently. One of the lectures published a CD that makes 700 books available to the

general public using the isilo e-reader format (The CD is “Basic Electronic Library”. The

program can be downloaded from www.isilo.com). Lectures can also publish their own notes or

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books in this format and make them available to the students. We know that, at least one lecturer

has done this for his master’s students.

6.2 E-learning in the classroom

In a more restrictive way the University has tried to facilitate the use of Audiovisual Equipment

(AV) and trained their staff to use it. Of the 26 classrooms and lecture theatres 24 are fitted with

permanent electronic overhead projectors and one networked computer at the lecturer’s desk with

UPS. Some classrooms have permanent speakers and there are portable speakers available for

those who require them. There are also 8 computers laboratories where special classes take place,

and that are available to students when not being used for classes.

Regarding e-teaching, all 246 full-time lecturer are provided with a desktop. Part time lecturers

(about 176 Strathmore University Facts and Figures as at 3rd June 2011

http://www.strathmore.edu/aboutus.php?id=28) also have access to desktops in their places of

work, though some have to share. This allows them easy and quick access to all e-library,

internet resources and preparation of audiovisual material for their lectures and e-learning

modules.

Special mention at this level is the increasing use of the overhead projectors for Power Point

presentations, which has practically taken over the use of TV (all but one TV have been removed

from the classrooms and meeting rooms), of transparencies (the last lecture using them has

transferred them to e-slides this year) and in some cases of the blackboards. The program used is

mainly Power Point because the University has licences for all lecturers’ computers for the latest

version of Windows and Microsoft Office. Some few use Linux, but mainly for IT related

activities, and only two, so far use Apple computers or programs, mainly because of licences

compatibility and cost.

6.3 LMS Moodle

To maximise the interaction between lecturers and students; to allow students and lecturers to

access the learning materials at any time and from any place SU decided to incorporate a LMS

Learning Management System to its site. For this since 1990 ? SU introduced Moodle. SU chose

an open source package for similar reasons than with the other IT systems

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Activities No %Resource 16,889 83.1%Forum 1,268 6.2%Assignment 952 4.7%Label 776 3.8%Hot Potatoes Quiz 145 0.7%Quiz 130 0.6%Journal 73 0.4%Chat 28 0.1%Glossary 16 0.1%Survey 14 0.1%Lesson 11 0.1%Choice 7 0.0%Wiki 6 0.0%Database 3 0.0%SCORM/AICC 2 0.0%Workshop 2 0.0%LAMS 1 0.0%TOTAL 20,323 100.0%

Acd Unit NoSHSS 19FIT 14SOA 7SMC 9SF 1Total 50

After testing it and seeing the benefits

obtained, and with the intention of

diminish the CO2 footprint and reduce

printing expenses, SU suggested lecturers

to distribute less printed notes and post

the notes in the e-elearning system

recently installed.

SU was not aware of the impact this was

going to have in the webometrics,

which at that moment was totally

unknown in Kenya. In fact it was a

surprise for all and was discovered

when a Newspapers published the first

article comparing Kenyan Universities

with the rest of Africa.

The use of Moodle by the different SU academic units is based more on the type of course (IT

lectures and students are more proficient and have more IT resources –laptops-) than on

enrolment (Management and Commerce and the School of Accountancy have more students than

IT). The School of Humanities and Social Sciences has

courses that all undergraduate students have to take. So,

in term of number of students served is the largest,

though it is not in number of subjects offered (16, some

of which are optional), while an average undergraduate

course has about 24 subjects.

The ranking of the first 50 courses according to number

of hits during the last 11 months confirms this as shown

in the table below.

At present lectures use it mainly as a resource store for the materials

they use in class. 83% as compared to all other activities. It is

interesting to see that among the activities

Academic Units No Courses Enrolment Co/EnFACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 333 1,058 0.31SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & COMMERCE 270 1,367 0.20SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 157 2,599 0.06SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY 96 1,952 0.05CENTRE FOR TOURISM & HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT 61 87 0.70GENERAL 32 0CENTRE FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE 22 0CENTRE FOR APPLIED PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS 19 21 0.90SCHOOL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS 18 87 0.21ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT UNIT 4

1,012

11/No

Academic Unit

Course Hits Enrolled RATE Lecturer

1 SHSS SPP10c 27,770 84 331 j branya

2 SHSS 8104 12,415 40 310 j branya

3 SHSS HED 4101 GROUP A 12,189 49 249 E Amisi

4 SHSS BSM 1102 17,919 86 208 B njeru

5 FIT DBT-2202 18,188 94 193 Oduor Nyamwaya

6 SOA ACCA2-Kiambere Lab 10,414 56 186 Selina Evelia

7 SOA ACCA P1 9,320 54 173 Mary Mutinda

8 FIT FundCompSys 16,843 102 165 Elsie Onsongo

9 FIT BBT 3104 NS 28,300 195 145 j sevil la

10 SMC CA-nov2010 50,236 394 128 N. Githinji

11 SHSS IE 9,366 77 122 Thomas Mundia12 SHSS ITE 59,310 520 114 t raji

13 FIT DBT 1104 25,047 222 113 g agutu

14 FIT Computer Arch. 11,762 108 109 n maingi

15 SOA CPA AITA 1 Jan-Mar 2011 18,584 173 107 Erastus Njuki

16 SF BSM 1204 18,588 96 194 Mary Mutinda

17 FIT DBIT1201 Sept 2010 10,515 101 104 chris ndasaba

18 FIT BBT1102JUL2010 18,068 205 88 b shibwabo

19 SHSS HED 1201 20,809 251 83 B njeru

20 FIT BBT2102 2010 19,596 239 82 b shibwabo

21 SHSS HHE 2105 13,070 174 75 J Wathuta

22 SHSS HED 1201 EVE 2010 17,040 229 74 Alfred K. Kitawi

23 SHSS PA10C 12,150 166 73 j branya

24 SOA IE ACCA 9,904 137 72 Thomas Mundia

25 SHSS PA2010 16,872 238 71 C Dean

26 FIT DBiT-2105 11,331 160 71 M. Olembo

27 FIT IntroToProgramming 10,708 173 62 j oyende28 SOA AEA 9,753 158 62 n ochieng29 SHSS HED 1202 17,307 283 61 S Macharia

30 FIT 1101 10,457 172 61 Fanon Ananda 31 SMC BCM2 4102 22,612 373 61 H. Nyougo Omae

32 SHSS EAS 18,675 333 56 A omondi

33 SMC HRM 14,999 290 52 B Dimba,

34 SOA F8 - A&A 12,082 235 51 S Migue

35 FIT BBT 2203 10 9,804 191 51 Nelson Ochieng

36 SMC POM2 13,342 269 50 B Dimba,

37 SHSS HED 1201 BCom 2010 14,701 297 49 j kentaro

38 SHSS ICTh 18,847 403 47 k oreally

39 SMC BCF 3102 8,823 209 42 Kimemia Kuria40 SHSS HED 12,748 318 40 S.M. Macharia41 SMC Comp Law 13,292 353 38 R Mbaluto

42 SHSS HHE 2206 12,294 341 36 A Omondi Otieno

43 SMC BSTUDIES 12,057 343 35 D Otieno

44 FIT DBIT 1101 8,985 264 34 C Ojiambo

45 FIT SSADM 10,521 315 33 B Murithi

46 SMC B.L 1 16,596 536 31 R. Mbaluto

47 SHSS HED 1101 FT 8,932 306 29 j kentaro

48 SOA AITA(Jared) 10,450 375 28 j mayieka

49 SHSS HED1202 9,845 357 28 S Macharia

50 SMC BCM 1201 10,824 409 26 P Magati

the forums are the most popular 6%. This goes well with the original intention of Moodle based

on social interaction pedagogy.

In the last eleven months Moodle registered

1,101,766 hits, which is equivalent to 245 hits per

student (this number includes masters, phd,

certificate, diploma and professional students).

In the table below the number of hits has been

divided by the number of enrolled users to get and

index which makes up for the difference in class

numbers.

The perception of the students as per the

unpublished paper of A.Kirigha, 2010 indicates

that what the figures in the chart above show; at

present most of the papers are lecturer’s notes

which they seem not to take advantage of all the

collaborative tools Moodle offers to foster

communication among students or between

students and their lecturer, and that they are not

practical enough. “The response to the above

research question received these noteworthy

responses: 30 (61.2%) students agreed that e-

learning encouraged teaching and learning; 31

(63.3%) students concurred e-learning helped to

achieve course objectives, 26 (53.1%) disagreed

that e-learning made knowledge more practical,

with a further 21(42.9%) disputing that e-learning

fostered interaction. This meant that the material

being provided through e-learning was mainly theoretical (37 students, 75.5%).” A. Kirigha

Kitawi The impact of e-learning strategy on student academic performance within Strathmore

University, 2010. To be published.

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7 E-teaching

None of SU lecturers had previous training in the use of Moodle, and most have little training in

Power Point. SU has to train them and give them the necessary tools to achieve this.

Younger graduates, especially those graduating from SU or IT related courses from other

universities are better prepared than older lecturers.

SU does not have a special unit to develop or train in elearning and eteaching. Even the

Education department in its courses up to now makes little reference to computers. This maybe

due to the small computer penetration in Kenya (see Introduction above) in spite of the recent

Government efforts to spread computer literacy in schools and universities.

The SU Academic Development Unit (ADU) has spearheaded the training of lecturers. The main

aim is to make their teaching active and student centred. ADU annually organises two courses for

training new teachers, where the SU specific IT systems are explained. They are initiated to

Moodle and encouraged to use it. The ADU sponsored some 8 lecturers to attend a special course

on elearning in 2010 at the Kenya Institute of Distance Learning with the idea of each of them

becoming a seed of change in his/her department. In 2011 the ADU organised a training session

for all lecturers given by four of the trained people. The aim was to divide the lecturers in 4

groups and help them to develop their own style under the guidance of one other lecturer. Both

initiatives have helped some of the lecturers but the many still find it difficult to use elearning as

a regular teaching tool. For example in the last eleven months there were 89 active courses in

Moodle out of more of 300 academic subjects. The ADU is still looking for ways of making the

lecturers to a) use Moodle regularly b) use the most participatory tools in Moodle c) to use other

IT tools for enhancing the learning experience. Some of the ADU have proposed to organise a

compulsory certificate for lecturers that they have to complete as part of their initial training, and

make it a requirement for promotion.

8 The Blended Master of Arts in Applied Philosophy and Ethics

In September 2010 the first blended course was offered. Students to the Master of Arts in

Applied Philosophy and Ethics came for two weeks intensive lectures in three subjects. This

master is for professional people, with at least two years working experience, and with

responsibilities in decision making that may affect other people’s lives, like doctors, politicians,

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lawyers, journalist, clerics, managers, etc. During the induction they were also trained in the use

of Moodle. The rest of the semester they went back to their places of work and from them, they

studied the reference materials, did their research and assignments, did two continuous

assessment tests and they came back to sit their final exams back to campus.

It is still early to compare the results of these system with the traditional classroom method of

study for a similar master, but the experience of the first two semesters (the students are doing

the third semester now) is very positive.

Students are benefiting of materials that otherwise will be difficult for them to find, they can pace

their own studies, they can access the library resources from any place, and they can interact with

the lecturers in person at the beginning of the semester and then by the elearning platform or

email during the rest of the semester.

The difficulties they have faced are mainly technical, the connectivity both on their side and on

the university server has problems from time to time, which makes them miss some assignments

or lose them in cyberspace. SU is trying to replicate the elearning site abroad, to minimise the

time down, and the country is in the process of making internet connectivity a backbone of

development.

9 Conclusions

SU being an emerging university, nevertheless seems to be one of the institutions that is

spearheading the use of IT technology in all areas of its activity (e-management, e-learning, e-

teaching, e-library and e-communication) through the IT faculty, ADU and Research Office unit.

SU due to its mission and vision tries to be at the forefront of research in education technology

and content within its limitations.

SU fosters IT development and tries to use open source IT services that allows it to adapt the

technology to its specific needs and possibilities.

SU has not yet establish a department of IT and Education, but it’s trying to promote the use of

IT among staff and students and giving the necessary training ad hoc. This is one of the most

immediate challenges, to enthuse lecturers in the use of the most effective IT systems for their

tasks.

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SU at present, its perceived, as one of the leading universities in IT in East Africa, thanks to the

investment in IT.

…