User:Supombe/sandbox

My name is Suzana John

From Tanzania

IMPROVING QUALITY OF LEARNING RESOURCES FOR DISTANCE COURSES- UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

BACKGROUND
Recent developments in ICTs specifically eLearning have heightened the need for University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) to supplement on-campus face-to-face delivery as well as meeting increased students’ enrolments through blended distance learning. Since 2008, the University has been offering three postgraduate programmes: Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering Management (PGDEM), and Master degree in Engineering (MEM).

The delivery model of these programmes combines traditional face-to-face delivery with eLearning technologies specifically the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) ( http://lms.udsm.ac.tz ) and Compact Discs (CDs). All learning resources are uploaded in LMS for students to access, with the same copy burned on CDs and given to students. The CDs enable students to access learning resources in offline environment, or when there is limited Internet connection. Furthermore, instructors facilitate course delivery using LMS tools such as discussion forums, chat and forums.

At the middle of each semester, students are required to attend face-to-face classrooms at the nearest learning centre. The face-to-face sessions helps students to receive immediately support and guidance on areas where

students were struggling. Currently, there are two operational learning centres: Mwanza and Dar Es Salaam. The centres are equipped with computers connected to Internet, and printing services.

Institutional arrangement

To facilitate the development and delivery of Blended distance programmes UDSM established the Centre for Virtual Learning (CVL) ( http://www.cvl.udsm.ac.tz/ ) in 2005. to facilitate the development and delivery of BL programmes. Among other activities, the centre provides pedagogical support to instructors for effective facilitation of BL programmes,

In terms of course delivery, CVL does not own any academic programme, rather facilitates the delivery of the programmes. The academic programmes are owned by respective schools or colleges. The two programmes: MEM and PGDEM are owned and offered by the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET), while PGDE is offered by the School of Education (SoED).

THE PROBLEM
The main challenge facing these programmes is the quality of learning resources. The available course contents have not followed instructional design pedagogical strategies suitable for distance courses. The learning resources are uploaded with the format of normal face to face teaching and learning. The courses are consisted of skeletal course guides or course hand-outs with minimum contents. Additionally, some instructors normally upload courses used to teach in traditional face-to-face delivery in the LMS without any e-learning instructional improvements. It is not uncommon to find summarized courses with Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF or Microsoft Word format uploaded in LMS for students’ access. In addition to that, these courses lacked interactivity and were designed without considering eLearning pedagogical approaches. The problems highlighted above regarding poor quality of course design have directly impacted on the mastery of course concepts for students and ultimately affect the quality of graduates (Mtebe & Twaakyondo, 2012)

= TARGET GROUP = Through the support from SIDA, the project will seek to improve the quality of learning resources by re developing them taking eLearning pedagogical considerations into account. This project will target PGDE, MEM and PGDEM courses for distance students. Sample course(s) are expected to be improved in eLearning pedagogical strategies and uploaded to UDSM LMS during the period of this training.

= EXPECTED RESULTS = At the end of this project, we expect to come up with sample course(s), the courses will follow eLearning pedagogical approaches with availability of interactive contents suitable for self-learning. We will use skills and knowledge obtained from this training to train other technical staff at CVL so that, altogether, we can improve the quality of the remaining courses.

REFERENCES

Mtebe, J. S., Dachi, H., & Raphael, C. (2011). Integrating ICT into teaching and learning at the University of Dar es Salaam. Special Issue: Distance Education for Empowerment and Development in Africa, 32(2), 289–294. doi:10.1080/01587919.2011.584854

Mtebe, J. S., & Twaakyondo, H. M. (2012). Developing and using animations and simulations to teach computer science courses: The case of University of Dar Es Salaam. In 2012 International Conference on E-Learning and E-Technologies in Education (ICEEE) (pp. 240–246). Lodz, Poland: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICeLeTE.2012.6333383