Blended learning at Mzumbe University:

Students’ Perspective

By Stephano Nalaila

Mzumbe University

M.Ed. Comparative and International Studies

Kenyatta University

A Paper presented at 21st Century eLearning and Innovation Conference at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.

July 28-31, 2014

Introduction

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion: Issues ahead

Introduction• Despite an increase in HLIs from 4 before 1990s to more than

55 in 2010, Tanzania still registered the lowest GER (bellow

2%) among the East African countries (Trust Africa, 2012;

Kashorda and Waema, 2011)

• The demand for the higher education has increased due to

recent success in primary and secondary education

development programs, PEDP and SEDP in the 2000s.

Introduction cont..

Consequently, HEIs have been grappling with the following

challenges;

• Cost of accommodating students in the available residential

infrastructures and improvement of teacher-students ratio.

• High demand for quality education

• Unproductiveness of the traditional bound curriculum

environment regarding the demographic change

Introduction cont.…Today, the use of ICTs is well articulated in the main policy

documents, mainly;

• The national ICT policy of 2003

• The Tanzania development Vision 2025 of 2006

• The ICT Policy for the Ministry of Education and Vocational

Training-MoEVT of 2007

• Higher Education Development Programme of 2007

According to these policy documents, ICTs are seen important

for the following;

Introduction cont.….

• Quality improvement in education delivery

• Expansion of access to majority needy

• Pedagogical roles changes

• Cost-saving

Introduction cont.…..

In the past five 5 years, the government and HEIs of Tanzania

have struggled to establish ICT infrastructures to support various

forms of e-learning, mainly the application of online activities to

supplement the traditional face-to-face instructions. For

example;

• The establishment of National Research Network (NREN)

• Establishment of the marine cables to provide reliable internet

provision

Introduction cont.… Exemption of value added tax to ICT equipment

Providing suitable environment for private investors, e.g. mobile

phone companies, which have significantly contributed to

availability of internet.

Currently, Science and Technology Higher Education Programme

(STHEP) under support of the World Bank is implementing several

interventions aimed at strengthening ICT capacity of HEIs, such as

the EMIS, and The E-library, which are expected to have a

significant impact on the use of E-learning

Introduction cont..STHEP is also supporting the pilot move for the use of MOOCs

and indispensably mobile learning in the country

In Tanzania, just like many other African countries, studies

show that, the use of various forms of e-learning still remains

rudimentary and its adoption has been very slow (Government

of Ghana, 2014; E-learning report, 2012; UNESCO, 2012; Sife

et al., 2007). While the emphasis on the quality of education is

also shared to the domestication of technology as well, critical

pedagogical considerations must be critically put in place.

Introduction cont..Major challenges relate to how well the HEIs can incorporate the

ICTs in the teaching and learning, mainly as a result of

• Cost of setting up ICT facilities

• Technology characteristics

• Lack of preparedness and self-efficacy among users

• Limited accessibility

• Lack of technical support

• Failures to anticipate the outcomes sought out of ICTs

Mtebe and Raphael, 2013; InfoDev, 2013; Kashorda and

Waema, 2011; Shimba et al., 2011;Swarts and Wachira, 2010)

Blended learning at Mzumbe University

In Tanzania, B/L is a recent practice, and its conception has not

featured well in the current e-learning practices. Currently,

Mzumbe university is part in many government initiated projects

like TERNET, EMIS and E-Library System, and donors like

VLIR-OUS from Belgium, which are all directed to building

capacity to harness the best ICT solutions in the teaching,

learning, research and management.

The available e-learning environments, enabled by Moodle

platform provides for a substantial online functions to

supplement the face-to-face instructions at the university.

Blended learning at Mzumbe..

However, the recent e-learning utilization report (MU, 2013)

presented an abysmally low level of utilization of the system by

teaching staff, students and administrators. For instance, the

report presented only 0.8% of over 280, which translates to 25

teaching staff using the available platform to blend the

instructions. This report relates to findings at University of Dar

es Salaam by Mtebe and Raphael (2013) and at OUT by Nihuka

and Voogt (2012)

Methodology

This paper is a result of an exploratory study which was

conducted by using documentary review (mainly training

manuals, reports and policy documents), interviews and focused

group discussion on students’ perspective on the experiences,

opportunities and challenges of the blended learning at Mzumbe

university.

Interviews were administered to directors for QA, ICT and

DELCE (Director for External Linkages and Continuing

Education), while focus group discussion were conducted on 6-7

member groups of students

Findings of the study

B/L supports at the university;

• Some irregular trainings for students and instructors

• Motivated helpdesk team for technical support

• Committed management especially in the directorate of ICT

• Networked computer labs (6 of them with over 230 computers)

• Fair internet connectivity (bandwidth of 40 Mbps)

Traditional face-to-face strategies still dominate the T/L

practices at MU despite government and institutional

initiatives.

Findings cont.….

Only few subjects can be accessed on-line, some of which do

not have contents, some faculties/schools did not have any

contents online

Perceived/experienced benefits of B/L

At Mzumbe, students expressed interests to use B/L, with the

anticipation to improve delivery quality and flexibility

Findings cont….

Students perceived that, B/L may reduce instructors

concervativeness (some instructors force students to buy/use

their books/publications) and enrich learning.

In the satellite centers, students perceived a reduction of

geographical distance with their instructors

Challenges experienced by students

These were related to the teaching staffs and technology resources,

and students themselves;

• Lack of delivery motivation from the teaching staffs

• Role substitution (technology to do everything) by the teaching staff

• Inadequate know-how to use navigate the online strategies

• Lack of resources in the satellite centers where teachers rarely reach

• Though no much complaints on, but no ICT facilities for special

needs students

• Inadequate and piecemeal coordination of the B/L-DICT, DELCE,

QA, top management, teaching staffs

Conclusion: Issues ahead

The traditional lecturers’ approaches/culture

Piecemeal implementation; commitment of actors within and

between institutions and ministry and how they are linked link

Types, adequacy & effectiveness of training

Resource constraints- Evaluation of different projects

All these need to be looked not only from the institutional

context, but also national policy frameworks

Thank yousnalaila@mzumbe.ac.tz

Steven.nalaila@gmail.com

www.mzumbe.ac.tz

Skype: Nalaila Steven