Mobile technology for innovative teaching and learning in Tanzanian higher education

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Dissertations in Forestry and Natural Sciences

DISSERTATIONS | GODFREY ISAAC MWANDOSYA | MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN... | No

GODFREY ISAAC MWANDOSYA

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

PUBLICATIONS OF

THE UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

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MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

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Godfrey Isaac Mwandosya

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

Publications of the University of Eastern Finland Dissertations in Forestry and Natural Sciences

No 455

University of Eastern Finland Joensuu

2021

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PunaMusta Oy Joensuu, 2021

Editors: Pertti Pasanen, Matti Vornanen, Jukka Tuomela, Matti Tedre

Sales: University of Eastern Finland Library ISBN: 978-952-61-4421-4 (print)

ISBN: 978-952-61-4422-1 (PDF) ISSNL: 1798-5668

ISSN: 1798-5668

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Author’s address: Godfrey Isaac Mwandosya

Department of ICT and Mathematics, College of Business Education (CBE) P.O. Box 1968,

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA email: g.mwandosya@cbe.ac.tz

Supervisors: Senior Researcher Calkin Suero Montero, PhD.

School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland

P.O. Box 111, JOENSUU, FINLAND.

email: calkin.montero@uef.fi

Esther Rosinner Mbise, PhD.

College of Business Education (CBE) P.O. Box 1968,

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA email: e.mbise@cbe.ac.tz

Professor Markku Tukiainen, PhD.

School of Computing,

University of Eastern Finland P.O. Box 111,

80101 JOENSUU, FINLAND.

email: markku.tukiainen@uef.fi

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Reviewers: Professor Dick Ng’ambi , PhD.

School of Education, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3,

RONDEBOSCH 7701,

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA.

email: dick.ngambi@uct.ac.za

Peter Mozelius, PhD.

Mid Sweden University,

Department of Computer and System Science, Campus Östersund,

Kunskapensväg 8, SE-831 25 ÖSTERSUND, SWEDEN

email: peter.mozelius@miun.se

Opponent: Caroline Khene PhD.

Senior Lecturer

School of Computer Science and Informatics De Montfort University,

LEICESTERSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM Visiting Professor

Department of Information Systems, Rhodes University

P.O. Box 94, MAKHANDA 6140 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA.

email: caroline.khene@dmu.ac.uk

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Mwandosya, Godfrey

Mobile Technology for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Tanzanian Higher Education

Joensuu: University of Eastern Finland, 2021 Publications of the University of Eastern Finland

Dissertations in Forestry and Natural Sciences 2021; No. 455 ISBN: 978-952-61-4421-4 (Print)

ISSNL: 1798-5668 ISSN: 1798-5668

ISBN: 978-952-61-4422-1 (PDF) ISSN: 1798-5676 (PDF

ABSTRACT

Tanzania is a country where teaching and learning mode remains mainly face-to-face in classrooms, where both teachers and students discuss and exchange learning contents verbally, using a blackboard or whiteboard. The teaching also involves exchanging manual copies between students and teachers and among students. However, global economy requires educational programmes to shift from traditional approaches to curriculum reforms that consider the development of a knowledge-based and skill-based society that can solve different challenges. Thus, a shift toward the use of mobile technologies to enhance activities in different sectors has been inaugurated, including education, specifically in higher education institutions (HEIs). The motivation for using mobile technologies is based on the ready availability of portable devices, the Internet, use of online applications and the learning management systems (LMS).

In Tanzania, the Students’ Academic and Registration Information System (SARIS) LMS has been introduced to HEI teachers over the past decade to facilitate secure communication and academic information sharing. However, LMS utilization in HEIs has remained low due to inadequate training and the failure of the system’s core functionalities to tackle the problems faced by students and teachers. Consequently, students and teachers have retained

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the use of hard copies of teaching notes, tests, quizzes, and assignments, despite the LMS. However, the use of these traditional teaching and learning tools hampers the fluent sharing of educational contents among teachers and students and fosters hard-to-correct errors in examinations and tests.

Thus, the need for innovative teaching and learning has been highlighted, so that the online sharing of teaching and learning related materials, supporting the self-regulated learning (SRL) for all students of the four campuses of CBE, also, smooth online administration of examinations for teachers could be achieved to improve education quality and reduce educational-related challenges. These issues have been incompletely researched in the academic literature in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly regarding the stand of involving end-users as co-designers of solutions. To tackle these challenges, a mobile educational tool (MET) prototype, CBEMET, was developed which enables teachers and students to share relevant educational material online, conduct mobile training, engage students in an online collaboration, support SRL, and improve teaching and learning approaches. As a representative HEI, the research was conducted at the College of Business Education (CBE) which is among 567 HEIs found in Tanzania, and one that uses SARIS and Moodle LMS in its education related operations.

The co-design and subsequent development of the CBEMET prototype, as an artefact, had followed the combination of activity theory (AT) (Kuuti, 1996) and the four-cycle model of design science research (DSR) (Drechsler and Hevner, 2016). The design cycle of DSR comprises five iterative design stages namely, the problem explication, requirements definition, design and development, demonstration, and finally the evaluation (Johannesson and Perjons, 2014). The four-cycle DSR model considers the impact of the artefact solution on its wider societal context beyond its application environment. In this study, AT, as proposed by Kuuti (1996), was applied by defining activity as the actions that the end users engaged in throughout the five design stages of DSR, from definition of requirements up to co-evaluation of the CBEMET prototype. During the first iteration of the design cycle, teachers, researchers, and developers were involved in defining requirements and co- designing a draft prototype interface; during the second iteration, students

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prototype was demonstrated to the end-users and was followed by two co- evaluation rounds: first, with the teachers who did participate earlier in the initial co-design of the CBEMET interface and second, with representative teachers and students from all four CBE campuses. During the co-evaluation, the prototype was used by teachers and students to exchange and share various educational resources to support the innovative teaching as well as the learning.

Major outputs of the study (detailed chronologically by six academic publications, indicated by PI, PII, PIII, PIV, PV, and PVI) show that in the end prototype genuinely enabled sharing of educational resources while fostering close and exciting academic collaborations among teachers themselves and between teachers and students. Likewise, while the prototype has promoted the sharing of educational resources among the students on all four campuses of CBE, it has enhanced their SRL. Furthermore, the prototype has supported a step ahead in the modernization of higher education, so that the dominant face-to-face mode of education has now been enhanced by online education where there was not a suitable face-to-face solution. This study’s contribution is also highlighted in its application of the DSR framework combined with the AT and the four-cycle information system (IS) DSR. The four-cycle model of IS DSR is handling the dynamic nature of developed prototype in the wider societal context in which the trigger for this artefact design development starts.

Universal Decimal Classification: 004.382.74, 004.41, 004.42, 004.514, 37.091.3, 378.147

Library of Congress Subject Headings: Educational technology; Educational innovations; Education, Higher; Business education; Mobile computing;

Mobile apps; Teaching; Learning; Sharing; Cooperation; Teachers; Students;

Software prototyping; Requirement’s engineering; User interfaces (Computer systems); Tanzania

Yleinen suomalainen ontologia: opetusteknologia; innovaatiot;

korkeakoulut; korkeakouluopetus; korkeakouluopiskelu; mobiililaitteet;

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mobiilisovellukset; mobiilipalvelut; oppimateriaali; jakaminen; yhteistyö;

opettajat; opiskelijat; ohjelmistosuunnittelu; ohjelmistokehitys;

vaatimusmäärittelyt; prototyypit; käyttöliittymät; Tansania

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Above all, I thank our almighty God, whose blessings have enabled me to achieve and reach this important milestone humbly and sincerely in my life.

I firmly believe that he has been with me throughout this journey, to which I say, “Glory be to God.”

My PhD journey began in 2013, when I met Professor Erkki Sutinen when I and Dr. Abby Nangawe from CBE attended a Garage Computing course at the Makerere University Business School (MUBS) where Prof. Sutinen was one of the facilitators. There I witnessed his “magic” and superb manipulation of ideas. Thank you so much Erkki! You unknowingly planted an academic seed in me that has and will continue to flourish. May our almighty God continually bless you and your family.

My heartfelt gratitude also goes to the management of the University of Eastern Finland and the College of Business Education for their collaborative project that has built the robust research capacity we have today. The collaboration between the two institutions through the International Multidisciplinary PhD Studies in Educational Technology & Learning Environment (IMPDET-LE) CBE-Hub has resulted in producing quality PhD theses at CBE and substantial quality research publications. Thank you, Prof.

Emmanuel Mjema, the CBE Rector, Deputy Rectors Prof. Eda Tandi Lwoga, and Dr. Emmanuel Munishi for the vision and readiness to support the programme wholeheartedly.

I am proud to mention my “super” supervisor, Calkin Suero Montero, one of the smartest and most intelligent personalities I have encountered.

Her mastery of narrating, guiding, and manipulating ideas is something I will always cherish. Thank you so much for guiding and scrutinizing our written articles, which facilitated the acceptance of our co-authored articles by several journals and conferences. You shaped me academically and improved my scientific writing tremendously, which I will never forget. My sincere appreciation also goes to Dr. Mikko Apiola for introducing us to the basics of research. Dr. Apiola took us from scratch and tolerated our research ignorance throughout the course. He would remain calm and would always

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encourage us to keep on learning, which we really appreciated. I also thank Dr. Esther Rossiner Mbise (Mama Mbise) for her mastery of research and for quick detection of missing details in research articles. Thank you so much for being my mentor, supervisor, and advisor! Similarly, I wholeheartedly thank Dr. Jarkko Suhonen for his patience, administrative mastery, and support to every PhD student, which the whole EdTech community admires. Thank you, Jarkko, for the timely provision of every possible support you could offer.

I fail to find words to describe Prof. Matti Tedre and Prof. Markku Tukiainen.

Starting with Matti, he smartly rejuvenated the CBE PhD group and gave us hope that everything is possible. He positively criticized our works, which encouraged us enormously and taught us the right ways of doing and reporting research findings, thank you very much, professor. To Markku, thank you so much for your understanding and generosity since you took the leadership of the group. Despite being so busy, you would, from time to time, find time to read our manuscripts painstakingly. I remember you once shared a book with me and taught me your experience of how to read books effectively.

Thank you very much.

Also, I humbly thank members of the EdTech as a group situated in different parts worldwide for contributing in one way or another to our interactive seminars throughout the programmes. We together participated in workshops, assignments, and online presentations, which genuinely cemented our works. Thank you Solomon Sunday Oyelere for visiting Dar es Salaam in 2018. This opened an avenue to PhD studies for all the CBE EdTech group. Thank you all for your invaluable comments. I appreciate the quality of editing done by Pertti Pasanen, Matti Vornanen, Jukka Tuomela, and Matti Tedre whose work enhanced the quality of this dissertation manuscript.

I appreciate the contributions of pre-examiners Prof. Dick Ng’ambi and Dr. Peter Mozelius whose comments on the manuscript had also greatly improved the quality of the manuscript as well. I also, would like to thank Prof. Caroline Khene for agreeing to be my opponent, it is an honor for me to have an opportunity to witness her experience in the field of ICT4D of which it is her research area.

I will never forget the contributions of my parents, relatives, friends and the

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dedicate this PhD work to my late father Mzee Isaac James Mwandosya and my mothers, Segelile Ifunga, Enelise Mwakanema, Mama Leah, and Mama Godfrey, for establishing my education since my childhood. May your souls rest in eternal peace, Amen. My brother, Prof. Mark James Mwandosya, and my sisters, the late Elizabeth (Dada Leah) and Dada Christina, contributed to my education to this level quite enormously.

I sincerely thank all my fellow PhD students, the members of EdTech under the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), as well as my colleagues at CBE for their unfailing support and company during this project. Similarly, I sincerely thank my colleagues at CBE: Dr. Ezra, Dr. Nasibu, Dr. Alsen, Dr. William, Mzomwe, Joel, and Anna for their unwavering support, constructive criticism, and group discussions, which made this challenging endeavor exciting and straightforward. I also would like to thank the two programmers, Mr. Sadick Lusewa and Mr. Hussein Mtaalam who were involved in writing the CBEMET prototype according to the co-designed prototype requirements.

Finally, I humbly and sincerely appreciate my darling wife Joyceline, for salvaging my life after the demise of my first wife, Janestella. Your contribution to my life is beyond compare. Thank you very much, and I love you so much.

I am equally short of words to thank my children, Lomnyak, Brian, Brenda and Emmanuela, for being a pillar of my life. Thank you for your company and constant encouragement throughout this course. May Almighty God lead you on the right path and enable you to bear fruits in every endeavour you are involved in.

Joensuu, December 14, 2021 Godfrey Isaac Mwandosya

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LIST OF ABBREVATIONS

AT Activity Theory

CBC Competence-Based Curriculum CBL Competence-Based Learning CBE College of Business Education DSR Design Science Research DFD Dataflow Diagram EFA Education for All

FGDs Focus Group Discussions HEIs Higher Education Institutions

IMPDET-LE International Multidisciplinary PhD Studies in Educational Technology & Learning Environment

ICT Information Communication Technology

ICT4D Information Communication Technology for Development DSR Design Science Research

LMS Learning Management Systems MDGs Millennium Development Goals MET Mobile Education Tool

MLS Mobile Learning System MNOs Mobile Network Operators

NACTE National Accreditation Council for Technical Education ODL Online Distance Learning

OER Online Educational Resource OOP Object Oriented Programming PBL Problem Based Learning Q&A Quality and Assurance

SARIS Students Academic and Registration Information System SLR Self-Regulated Learning

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences TCU Tanzania Commission for Universities

TPACK Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge UEF University of Eastern Finland

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LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS

This thesis is based on data presented in the following listed articles, referred to by the Roman Numerals I–VI.

I Mwandosya, G. I., Suero Montero, C., Mbise, E. R, Oyelere, S. S, (2019).

Mobile Learning Systems’ Functionalities in Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania: Teachers and Students’ Readiness at the College of Business Education. 3rd Interna-tional Conference Europe, Middle East, and North Africa on Information Systems & Tech-nology &

Learning (EMENA-ISTL) 2019.

II Mwandosya, G. I., Suero Montero, C. (2017). Towards a Mobile Education Tool for Higher Education Teachers: A User Requirements Definition. In Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Science Technology and In-novation for Africa, AFRICON 2017 Conference (pp. 908–914). Cape Town, South Africa:

IEEE.doi:10.1109/AFRICON 2017.2017.8095598.

III Mwandosya, G. I., Suero Montero, C., Mbise, E. R. (2018). Co-designing of a Mobile Educational Tool for Innovative Teaching and Learning at the College of Business Education, Tanzania. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 18(3), 10–24.

IV Mwandosya, G. I., Suero Montero, C., Mbise, E.R., Oyelere, S.S.

(2020). Demonstra-tion of a Mobile Education Artefact in a Tanzania’s Higher Education Institution, International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 14(14), 31–51.

V Mwandosya, G. I., Mbise, E.R. (2019). Evaluation Feedback on the Functionality of a Mobile Education Tool for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Institution in Tanzania, International Journal of Education Development using Infor-mation and Communication Technology, 15(4), 44–70.

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VI Mwandosya, G. I., Suero Montero, C., Mbise E. R. (2020). Co-evaluating a Mobile Education Tool in Tanzanian Higher Education, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (Submitted)

The six articles listed above, and which are included also at the end of this dissertation, have been granted the permissions of their respective copyright holders.

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AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION

I) PAPER I: In this paper, I planned its structure, methodology, and analysis. The co-authors worked on shaping the paper regarding organization, presentation, and discussion of the results in comparison with other similar works. I also worked on the conclusion and looked at the limitations and future studies.

II) PAPER II: I contributed to this paper as principal author working from the scratch. I planned the whole study, meetings, and set up questionnaires for teachers. The survey validation was conducted by the co-author who, among other things, added items in the questionnaire. I conducted the interviews, recorded, transcribed, analyzed the data obtained, and produced first draft of this paper.

My co-author worked on draft paper and contributed final touches to its completion.

III) PAPER III: I organized participants’ attendance in workshops for the co-designing exercise. The coordination that induced the development of the artefact was performed collaboratively with the co-authors and the developer. The interviews with teachers and the final analysis of the working of the artefact were conducted syner-gistically with the developer. I finalized the paper by comparing our findings with other related mobile education artefacts in the discussion and concluded the article with limitations and future studies.

IV) PAPER IV: As far as this paper is concerned, I am the main author. I organized logistics for demonstrating the CBEMET prototype artefact.

The artefact demonstra-tion was followed by initial evaluation.

I ensured that, after the demonstration and initial evaluation, proper observation and feedback were obtained to provide enough suggestions for improving the working of the artefact for the next round of iteration.

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V) PAPER V: This paper came after the demonstration and initial evaluation of the artefact. It was intended to improve the working of the artefact. I set up the experiment, interview questions and all modalities of getting feedback from teachers and students as users of the artefact. The co-authors corrected questionnaires and interview questions and reviewed the final draft that was taken for publication.

VI) PAPER VI: The Evaluation of CBEMET was performed in all the campuses to maximally analyze the artefact. The evaluation was conducted in the second iteration of CBEMET design stage. I sent questionnaires to both the teachers and students. The co-authors joined in scrutinizing the questionnaire and interview items to ensure their validity. All the authors were involved during analysis of data as well as presentation, discussion of the findings, conclusion, limitations, and suggestions for future study.

In each published article, my contribution amounts to 75% of the work and above. Nevertheless, the cooperation which I have experienced with the co- authors has been excellent.

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requirements ...82 3.2.3 Artefact co-designing and development...82 3.2.4 Artefact demonstration ...83 3.2.5 Artefact co-evaluation ...84 3.3 Activity Theory and CBEMET ...85 3.4 Co-development of the CBEMET ...87 3.5 Summary ...88 4 CBEMET ARTEFACT DEVELOPMENT ... 91 4.1 The 1^stDevelopment Iteration of the CBEMET ...91 4.1.1 Explication of practical problems at CBE ...92 4.1.2 Defining requirements and solutions in the CBEMET ...94 4.1.3 Co-design and development of CBEMET ...97 4.1.4 1^stCBEMET prototype ...100 4.1.5 Demonstration and initial co-evaluation of the CBEMET ...101 4.1.6 Experiment designed to co-evaluate 1^st version CBEMET ...103 4.1.6.1 Research Context and Participants ...103 4.1.6.2 Learning activity and experimental design ...104 4.1.6.3 A Study Research Instrument ...106 4.1.6.4 The Data analysis ...107 4.2 Results from Initial Evaluation of the CBEMET ...107 4.2.1 Demographic information ...107 4.2.2 Facilitating the sharing of educational resources ...108 4.2.3 Impact of the CBEMET on innovative teaching and learning .111 4.2.4 Pedagogical experience in the implementation of CBEMET .113 4.2.5 Discussion on initial evaluation results ...116 4.3 The 2^nd CBEMET Development Iteration –New Requirements, Co-

evaluation and the Change and Impact Cycle ...116 4.3.1 Re-explication and re-definition of the new requirements ...117 4.3.2 Co-designing the 2^nd version of the CBEMET ...119 4.3.3 Demonstration of the CBEMET ...125 4.3.3.1 Demonstration Setup ...125 4.3.3.2 Demonstration Activity ...125

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4.4 The Final Co-Evaluation of the CBEMET ...128 4.4.1 Usability ...130 4.4.2 User Experience (UX) in Using the Prototype ...131 4.4.3 Comparison with existing related mobile educational tool

projects ...132 4.4.4 Self-Regulated Learning ...133 4.4.5 CBEMET External Environment Consideration ...135 4.5 Lessons Learned...138 4.6 Summary ...138 5 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS ... 141 5.1 Research Contribution ...143 5.2 Limitations of the Study ...147 6 CONCLUSION ... 149 6.1 Answers to the Research Questions ...149 6.2 Future Research ...151 BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 153 PAPERS ... 173

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: The relationship that exists among research questions, DSR components, research methods and research papers. ...44 Table 2.1: Comparison between teaching and learning status before and

after the adoption of mobile technologies at the College of Business Education (CBE) within the four campuses. ...68 Table 2.2: Summary of mobile education tool projects ...71 Table 3.1: Summary of educational problems faced by CBE ...81 Table 4.1: A description of final system requirements, definitions of

each function of a related requirement ...97 Table 4.2: The evaluation criteria ...102 Table 4.3: Items suggested for inclusion in the prototype ...102 Table 4.4: MIS Students’ learning activities (adapted from Paper V) ...104 Table 4.5: Questionnaire items (adapted from Paper V) ...108 Table 4.6: Descriptive analysis results of teachers’ and students’

questionnaire data (adapted from Paper V) ...109 Table 4.7: Descriptive statistics of pre-test learning achievement

outcome (adapted from Paper V) ...112 Table 4.8: Analysis of the covariance (ANCOVA) results (adapted from

Paper V [152]) ...113 Table 4.9: Pedagogical experiences of teachers and students in using

the CBEMET prototype (adapted from Paper V) ...114 Table 4.10: The re-explication of the practical problems...118 Table 4.11: Students’ expected functionalities of the CBEMET—tabs and

explanations ...121 Table 4.12: CBEMET Tab for students ...123 Table 4.13: Focused tasks during the demonstration of the designed

case ...126 Table 4.14: Initial evaluation of the CBEMET prototype ...127 Table 4.15: Comparison between the co-designed and co-evaluated

CBEMET prototype described in this thesis and the M.L.I

application ...133

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The activity system during CBEMET artifact co-design and

development and co-evaluation [59]. ...60 Figure 2.3: Students crowded in a classroom at the main campus in Dar

es Salaam...67 Figure 3.1: Research design adapted and modified from Johannesson

and Perjons [57], Activity Theory [59] and Drechsler and Hevner [62]. The Four-cycle model IS DSR was applied from the socio-technical context to problem explication. ...78 Figure 3.1.1: The DSR co-design and develop artefact stage shown as

activity-based ...79 Figure 3.2: One of the sketches of the prototype main menu by a teacher

during the co-design phase ...83 Figure 3.3: Teachers trying to access the CBEMET prototype on

their own ...84 Figure 3.4: The structure of an activity adapted from Kuuti [59] ...86 Figure 4.1: Co-designing workshop involving teachers, developer, and

researchers ...99 Figure 4.2: The menu produced by teachers after the co-designing

activity ...100 Figure 4.3: Teachers, researchers, and developers during the

demonstration of the CBEMET prototype ...101 Figure 4.4: Experimental procedure ...105 Figure 4.5: The efficiency of the CBEMET prototype in sending SMS

and uploading and downloading different educational

materials ...111 Figure 4.6: (Left) One of the students’ sketches of personal information.

(Right) Realized students’ personal information menu in the prototype ...119 Figure 4.7: The final login menu for all users (teachers, students,

administrators, or system manager) ...120 Figure 4.8: The Dataflow diagram (DFD) of the CBEMET ...122 Figure 4.9: The use case diagram of CBEMET...122 Figure 4.10: Students’ main menu after the 2nd iteration of the

co-designing CBEMET with the students ...123 Figure 4.11: Students’ access to learning notes and SMS

communication ...124 Figure 4.12: Students’ Live chat messages ...125

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Figure 4.13: (Left) Teachers and (Right) Students checking (2nd evaluation) on how the CBEMET prototype really works. (Faces have been blurred for anonymity) ...128 Figure 4.14: The Co-Evaluation components of the CBEMET—Usability, User

Experience (UX), Comparison with other Artefacts,

Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), and ICT Framework ...129 Figure 4.15: The Conceptual Framework for ICT Monitoring and

Evaluation Wagner et al. [160] ...137 Figure 5.1: Students accessing learning materials in different locations,

i.e., in school premises outside classrooms (left), and in

buses (right) ...142

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1 INTRODUCTION

Numerous challenges hinder the smooth delivery of education in higher education institutions (HEIs). in Tanzanian context several researchers have pinpointed some of the challenges for example, [1], [2], [3]. These challenges include a shortage of teaching aids, inadequate innovative curriculum contents, scarcity of classrooms, large number of students in a class, scarcity of books in the libraries (ration: one book to 10 students), insufficient teaching tools, lack of reading materials, and scarcity of skill-oriented learning, etc. [2]. Mazana et al. [4] studied the challenges facing the learning of mathematics in Tanzania and identified bottlenecks, such as students’ negative attitudes toward the subject, teachers’ instructional practices and poor school environment. In Tanzanian higher education institutions, normally, teaching and learning have mainly remained to be a face-to-face method of instruction, whereby a teacher prepares a pre-planned topic for students to copy, and students reproduce the same during examinations. Hence, a student who can cram and reproduce the materials had read passes exams. The chance of a proper understanding of the course material is lacking for such students [5]. Thus, some of the graduates cannot perform well in the work they are given by their employers [5].

These challenges, in turn, undermine the quality of education and the quality of graduates from HEIs, including other levels. “Graduate skills do not appear to match the needs of the employment system in the changing national and global environment” [6]. Arguably, some graduates of HEIs in Tanzania lack skills in matters they are supposed to have learned in institutions.

To address these challenges, several measures have been initiated by the Tanzanian government to enable teaching and learning that empower students and teachers to be innovative. These measures have brought about several new educational policies, economic development, and industrial development in Tanzania. For example, Tanzania Development Vision 2025 intends to realise an educated also a learned society resulting to a competitive and robust economy [7]. The Tanzanian Technical Education Training Policy inaugurated in 1996 calls for, the need for Tanzania as one of developing

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countries to have qualified range of trained technically skilled manpower of all categories. Furthermore, the need to impart proper technical skills in youths and the adults to enable them to go into sustainable self-employment and be able to employ i.e., creation of employment and to inculcate science and technology capability in Tanzanian society (an education strategy) [8]. The National Higher Education Policy of 1996 emerged from the need to recognize the rapidly changing technological needs of higher education in Tanzania. It advocates expanding enrolment at all levels of learning, the need for nurturing specialized skills, the need to go with and keep up with new and emerging areas of technologies (e.g., computing, information communications technologies).

Also, the need for improved entrepreneurship, reliable financing of education sector based on actual unit cost, and the liberalization of higher education and other training sectors [9]. National Science and Technology Policy of 1996 intends to guide and monitor the development of National Scientific and Technological Capacity, to regulate the flow of acquired technology, and to minimize excessive dependence on imported technologies. Basically, this policy advocates expanding the investment in human resources to increase the capability to manage science and technology, paying special attention to applied research, increasing the overall capability for the transfer of technology (local and foreign), research and development, a conducive environment for unleashing the creative and innovative potential of the Tanzanian people, and minimizing problems in critical economic, different productive and social welfare sectors, such as mining industry, agriculture and energy [8].

The first formal National ICT Policy was adopted in 2003 to serve as a national framework towards achieving national development goals. It is intended to transform Tanzania into a knowledge and skills-based society through the use of ICT and the resulting applications; to provide a sound national framework to accommodate the convergence of information and communication technologies to rural and urban centers; to improve human resource development; and to enhance the sustainability of socio- economic development and accelerated poverty reduction, both nationally and internationally [10]. Main theme for policy uptake is to assist Tanzanian society in achieving the 2025 millennium development goals. In addition

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guiding manual regarding technologies’ usage in sectors such as education.

For example, in 2007, the Ministry of Education introduced the ICT Policy for Basic Education [11], while the Ministry of Public Service Management introduced the e-Governance Strategy in 2009 [12]. The need to establish Web Portals, such as the “Wananchi Portal” www.wananchi.go.tz, was to enable citizens in Tanzania to consult various government authorities and seek online solutions to their problems. The National Data Bank/Open Government—www.data.go.tz, and www.opengov.go.tz—aimed to provide variety of facts about statistical information relating to the government and its agencies, indicates that the government is willing to use the available ICT infrastructure as its primary tool for communication with its various stakeholders, including education sector. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), in 2010, reported the increase in number of ICT users recorded in the last decades has exceeded 450%. Public institutions therefore need to capitalize on this uptake for information sharing, especially in the HEI context in Tanzania.

The use of ICTs and related educational tools through mobile technologies if structured properly can innovatively improve students’ learning, understanding, knowledge and skills quite effectively [2], [3], [13]. ICTs and related educational tools can enable graduates to create jobs by coming together and registering start-ups in fields of their expertise. The application of technologies in process of teaching and learning in higher education and other levels is necessary and imperative, as it facilitates the development and use of educational tools that some are abundantly freely available online [5], [14], [15], [16]. The ex-president of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, visited Knoxville town on 10^thOctober 1996 and said the following on Internet for School issues:

“Finally, let me say the explosion of information has changed everyone’s life, nowhere more than on the Internet. Now, try to think about the Internet, how rapidly it has become part of our lives.”

” I want to see the day when computers and its accessories are as much a part of a classroom as blackboards, and we put the future at the fingertips.”

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Hence, in recent years, there has been tremendous expansion and use of digital technologies in different sectors. The widespread use or application of digital technologies has emerged when, globally, new technologies have been amazingly simplifying the way things are being done, delivered, accessed, and consumed. Since the invention of computers, human activities have been significantly simplified due to the computer’s ability to store, process, and disseminate information [17]. The same activities which humans can perform in a few days can be done in a few seconds by just clicking a key, with accurate results. Computer networks are yet another technology enabling users in different parts of their geographical locations to share different digital products and services. The Internet, because of computer networks, has opened more opportunities in education, as through it, there is a global connection of people, products, and services [18].

Technologies such as electronic learning (e-learning) have increased access to learning materials globally using the Internet [19]. With e-learning, teachers and students can exchange learning materials, assignments, and educational projects at any time, even beyond classrooms [20]. Mobile technologies have enabled flexibility in accessing, sharing, and disseminating learning contents among teachers and students ubiquitously.

The availability of wireless technologies that connect internet to different mobile devices has created an opportunity for developing mobile applications popularly known as mobile apps. The mobile related apps once accessed and then installed in mobile devices can be used to provide education and share related educational materials anytime and anywhere [21]. Furthermore, the availability and affordability of mobile devices, coupled with the Internet offered by mobile network operators (MNOs), have boosted the chances of online resources. Teachers and students are free to access and download any application if, in one way or another, the mobile app can help in the teaching and learning contexts. Alternatively, the mobile technologies coupled with mobile devices are used in supporting teaching and the learning processes by providing a platform whereby learning resources are accessed and shared, irrespective of time, location, and context. Several authors around the globe have written how mobile apps are being utilized in the education sector [22],

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in higher education by offering a platform to carry out academic activities online, and not only physically face to face (e.g., online teaching and learning, online examinations, etc.)

Mobile technologies, therefore, allow for innovations in HEIs whereby utilizing mobile devices in the processes of teaching and learning minimizes the challenges like shortages of classes while provides avenues for the students to access and download various learning resources without dependence only on the learning materials given to them by their teachers (spoon-feeding). To emphasize more, the mobile devices when connected to wireless internet can access different applications found, for example, in Google’s Play Store, where various applications are found and are accessible and downloadable with minimum effort. The same set-up of access to learning materials is made in HEIs by installing ICT and mobile technology infrastructure to enable teachers as well students in sharing learning related materials, examinations, assignments, project works, and even collaborate in teaching and learning, not necessarily physically in classes. A good example is Moodle, where the exchange of learning contents, assignments and discussions, and a view of the activities done can be accessed by students any time, regardless of time, location, or geographical distance. Hence, in Tanzania, mobile-related learning systems (MLS) and learning-related management systems (LMS) are becoming increasingly used by both the teachers and students in HEIs through their mobile devices [27], [28], [29].

All above-mentioned strengths of technologies justify their adoption as far innovative teaching and learning is concerned in schools worldwide.

Tanzanian Education and Training Policy of 2014 [30] directs educational institutions, specifically HEIs, to embrace innovative education. The emphasis on innovation is geared towards enabling graduates to seek solutions to different challenges facing society. Furthermore, Tanzania’s industrialization policy expects higher education to contribute by producing graduates who can move with the pace of economic development innovatively and contribute massively.

Consequently, in Tanzania and elsewhere, innovations in different sectors have been emphasized [31], [13], [32], [33]. Through different technologies, varying measures have been taken to sensitize innovations through programs,

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such as innovation spaces, living labs and research in institutions [34], [35], [36]. E-learning has been helpful in enabling access to various educational resources using the internet [37]. LMS in the Moodle system has been employed in Tanzanian HEIs by for example, Mbeya University of Science and Technology, where Moodle was used for discussion posts, peer interaction, and exercises, Mwalumbe and Mtebe [38]. In 2012, CBE acquired an LMS by the name students’ academic and registration information system (SARIS).

The SARIS as an LMS was expected to smoothly solve some educational- related practical problems facing teachers and students at CBE. The SARIS function related to uploading of coursework and final examinations works perfectly, whereby the automatic calculations of the final marks are performed and the grading given. After grading, students can access their final grades obtained for each subject, timetable, and shared educational-related learning materials (assignments, learning notes, quizzes, project works, etc.).

However, challenges are reported regarding use of the technologies in higher education in Tanzania. Mahenge [5] identified the lack of resources and network bandwidth as constraints in delivering learning contents. Mtebe and Raisamo [39] identified challenges facing ICT usage in higher education in Tanzania as computer inaccessibility (insufficient or poorly functional computers in the teachers’ offices), inadequate internet availability, missing some ICT policies and lack of enough skills to create or open educational resources (OER). A study conducted by Rivers et al. [40] in Tanzania and Ghana identified the challenges facing education in African countries as limited technological capacity and resources, such as electricity, equipment, and funding. Teachers’ and students’ reluctance to use technologies is another challenge, especially in higher education in Tanzania [39].

Furthermore, system users in most HEIs partly fail to perform with LMS to the expected standard [27], [29]. The massive failure of the LMS was that the system users were, in most cases, not involved in acquiring or developing those systems. When the LMS started to be deployed by the teachers at CBE, they lacked training in LMS usage. They obtained some training on the working of the systems later, after the system had been employed. While using the LMSs, the teachers could pinpoint some of the LMS deficiencies

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explained some of the challenges of e-learning adoption in higher education, including the lack of easy mechanisms to facilitate the interaction between students and teachers. Most of the studies concentrated on challenges that are not related to the available tools in LMS and MLS.

Thus, this study addressed the research gap by focusing on teachers’ and students’ involvement in a process of co-designing as well as co-evaluating a mobile educational tool to enable reach innovative teaching and learning for higher education. Furthermore, the mobile education tool geared towards enabling teachers to attend mobile training to be ready for the mission of innovative teaching and learning, since among challenges that HEIs in Tanzania face has been technological innovation utilization for innovative teaching for teachers and innovative learning for students. Innovation is simply defined in terms of doing something new or differently to improve the existing method or approach [42]. The developed mobile education tool addresses the shortcomings observed in SARIS, an LMS adopted by the College of Business Education in 2012. SARIS was developed to be used by HEIs in Tanzania, although most of the HEIs that adopted it, including CBE, realized that SARIS required better customization to cater to the specific needs of each institution. This study, therefore, aimed at developing a mobile application tool as an artefact to tackle the problems that teachers and students in HEIs still faced despite having LMS. The study followed the DSR framework whereby stakeholders were involved in the stages starting from the design process, development stage, implementation up to the evaluation stage, in order to understand what they thought needed to be included in a new system to solve their educational-related practical problems [43], [44].

1.1 Background and Study Motivation

The education system in Tanzania is designed as 2 + 7 + 4 + 2 + 3 +. This means:

two years of kindergarten, seven years to be spent in primary education, four years spent in secondary education, two years taken for high school studies, finally a minimum of three years expected for higher education [30].

According to directive of government of Tanzania through the Education and

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Training Policy (2014), an education system of indicated years 2 + 7 + 4 + 2 + 3 + is long for students to complete their education and be ready to serve the Nation. It requires a minimum of 18 years to complete this system, compared to countries like Finland, South Africa, Mauritius, and Malaysia, where the education systems take between 13 and 15 years. The proposed system of years of study according to the Education and Training Policy was 1 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 3 +, i.e., one year of kindergarten, six years to spend in primary school, 4 years of secondary school, 2 years of high school and a minimum of 3 years in higher education. The government of Tanzania also introduced a Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy [45] in the 1970s to minimize the level of illiteracy in Tanzania. The policy was intended to help adults without formal education to at least learn how to read and write. All these levels of the education system in Tanzania use teaching aids in the process of teaching and learning. In the primary school level, for example, bottle tops (from recycled glass or plastic bottles) have been used and are still being used in counting as a tool of teaching mathematics. In secondary education, teachers have been inventing their own tools to aid in their teaching to enhance the students’

understanding of the subject matter [46].

In Tanzanian HEIs, teaching activities and learning activities are mostly done face-to-face taking place in classrooms, whereby teachers and students physically meet for lectures based on teachers’ prepared lessons. The dominant mode of exchange in this mode of learning would be by writing notes from lecturers’ presentations, copying written notes from black- or whiteboards, or photocopying hard copy notes. A major shortcoming of this method was that it largely encouraged cramming and thereby restricted students’ chances to be innovative. In other words, some students could obtain high grades without necessarily acquiring the skills expected of them.

Consequently, Tanzania’s Education and Training Policy enacted in 2014 directed all HEIs together with other levels of education to strive for innovations in the way they deliver education, assessment, and generally the way they tackle variety of education issues [30]. During the year 2005, there was a significant change in curriculum to embrace what is called the Competence-Based Learning (CBL) system and Competence-Based

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Tanzanian learners to develop enough skills and knowledge to enable them to demonstrate performance. It can be argued that learners’ empowerment to develop knowledge and skills is supported by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that offer opportunities for innovations in the education sector, specifically in HEIs.

Indeed, ICTs utilization proved viable in mitigating most challenges faced by the education sector in Tanzania. Several studies have proposed in using ICTs and mobile related technologies as one of many solutions to practical educational problems globally and in Tanzanian higher education contexts, facilitating innovative teaching and learning [19], [1], [48]. Variety of technologies including social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.), mobile applications, and wireless technologies provides ease of access and creative ways of accessing information from anywhere and anytime, despite physical barriers. Consequently, at present, most of Tanzanian HEIs embarked on investing in ICT infrastructure and mobile technologies in enhancing innovative teaching and learning [49]. Several higher education institutions in Tanzania, adopted LMS and established websites for posting information and emails for education related correspondences among others.

The problem was, however, that most of these adopted systems were either procured or developed without consulting the end users of the systems.

Thus, they failed in many aspects to meet the end user requirements of the local end. The LMS used at the College of Business Education in its mission to deliver quality education, lacked functionalities to ensure the uniformity of content across diverse campuses and the lack of innovative techniques to share teaching manuals and other students’ learning materials among teachers (teaching notes) and students (learning materials). This study set out to bridge this gap by designing an ICT-based, pedagogically sound application that really meet the requirements of the actual end-users in a particular higher education. Its uniqueness is apparent in framework used (combination of DSR, Activity Theory and the four-cycle IS DSR) and most importantly the involvement of end users during all stages of design and development, working concurrently with designers, developers, and researchers to realize an artefact that meets their needs.

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1.2 Research Questions

This dissertation aimed to suggest effective mobile application usage being a pedagogical tool that caters for reaching innovative teaching (teachers) and innovative learning (students) in Tanzanian HEIs. This objective was inspired by the realization that the situation of teaching and learning environment in Tanzanian context in HEIs was largely face-to-face in classrooms, where teachers and students would meet to share and exchange related educational materials, such as teaching notes, assignments, quizzes, tests, and examinations. At the College of Business Education in all its four campuses, for example, the number of students reached 8000 in 2018/2019, while the number of classes remained constant. In practice, one classroom hosts about 200 students, which deters teaching and learning in several ways.

To accommodate large classes, teachers resort to a teacher-centered method by getting students to copy whatever is said and written by teachers on whiteboards, which considerably limits their didactic innovation capability.

Equally, teachers fail to be innovative in their teaching content by relying on old notes almost every semester.

The use of mobile technologies appeared to be a plausible solution for some of the challenges encountered. First, many teachers and students possessed mobile devices and used them for various activities, including sending each other text messages (SMS), accessing social media, online mobile apps in play stores, and e-mails [50]. A study at CBE in 2017 revealed that 120 (95%) out of 126 teachers have one or more mobile devices for the mentioned activities [43]. There are different reported cases where educational tools installed in mobile devices have been applied to enhance the education sector in various countries [2], [51], [1]. Second, most Tanzanian HEIs have already acquired sound ICT and mobile technology infrastructures that enabled access to information and other academic-related issues online, e.g., through websites.

Third, course registrations and university entrance applications are already being done electronically and online. The applicants and possible students to these HEIs also used their mobile devices to access and download application forms, etc.

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Considering the possibility of using mobile devices to enhance education in the Tanzanian higher education context, this study designed and developed a mobile education tool known as the CBEMET artefact prototype. The co- designing and co-development of the CBEMET artefact prototype were conducted collaboratively with researchers, two developers, and teachers through iterations of the DSR stages. Specifically, this dissertation will examine four research questions:

Research question one (RQ1): What is the mobile device use-patterns of both CBE teachers and students and their readiness to use these devices for innovative teaching and learning?

One of the challenges reported by many scholars, deterring success in implementing mobile learning projects in HEIs, has been the readiness of both the teachers also the students. Several reported mobile educational projects have shown that teachers and students, as stakeholders, were not ready by the time of introducing mobile education tools following the projects’

launching, attributed to the disengagement of teachers and students (the major stakeholders) in the early stages of those project implementations.

Therefore, they miss a chance of articulating their requirements, which is the necessary input for the successful implementation of tools. Thus, some of the implementations of these projects are reported to have failed or not to have met the desires of the users for the practical problems they were intended to solve [52]. It is imperative for HEIs and their management to take efforts to study the mobile device use patterns and desires main stakeholders (teaching staff and students in this case) during the design and development of innovative mobile teaching and learning artefacts for a successful end- product [47].

Research question two (RQ2): How can the sharing of education related materials among teachers and students be implemented using mobile educational tool for an innovative teaching and learning?

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In solving the practical problems facing teachers and students, one of the measures considered was the development of a mobile education tool [43].

The sharing of educational materials for example, teaching manuals, lecture notes, and project assignment by the teachers and students in HEIs has been a problem for a long time—for instance different CBE campuses had different materials about the same subject, etc., which creates a lack of synchronicity in the level and quality of education received. To ensure proper sharing of the educational materials among the students taking the same course on different campuses, the use of suitable methods through a mobile educational tool had been a priority [53]. Similarly, a study by Cronic, C. [54] narrated the description of education practices that include for example, the creation, use and eventual reuse of open educational resources (OER) alongside open pedagogies and sharing of teaching practices. Mtebe, J. [55] explained the sharing of educational resources using learning management systems. It is, therefore, important to understand how a successful implementation of these sharing practices through a robust mobile application can be realized.

Research question three (RQ3): How can a suitable mobile educational tool that facilitates innovative teaching and learning be co-designed, developed, demonstrated, and co-evaluated in higher education?

Mobile technologies have enabled sharing of educational materials through mobile devices, but the issue here is on how effectively this sharing can be done. The need arises for a proper definition of educational materials and how they should be shared. The mobile education tool should be able to realise this aim as effectively as possible. Prior knowledge of innovative curriculum implementation and the type of sharing of related educational materials are suitable inputs for designing a system or application intended for those activities. Involving the potential user of the application while developing an application minimizes the number of errors, the possibilities of inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the application during implementation. The process of co-designing and developing an application allows stakeholders to identify possible errors and fix them before the implementation stage later. Similarly,

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first round of the iteration helps in uncovering errors, thereby suggesting possible modifications to the application at the early stage. The co-evaluation process of an application also allows end-users who were involved in co- designing and developing the application to pinpoint areas of weakness that need improvement, or to complete changes to match what was described in the requirement definition.

Research question four (RQ4): What are the innovative pedagogical experiences that teachers and students gain through using the co-designed mobile educational tool?

This study set out to determine how a mobile education tool prototype is used to foster an innovative teaching and learning in Tanzanian HEIs. This question explored the experiences gained by teachers and students at the four campuses of College of Business Education (CBE) who used the prototype to improve their teaching and learning practices.

1.3 Research Methodology

This study was done in Tanzania at one of the HEIs known as College of Business Education (CBE). CBE has a high rate of student enrollment in recent years. In the academic year 2014/2015 academic year alone, the CBE enrolled 13,000 students [56]. Similarly, CBE has an advantage of having the four campuses strategically distributed in four regions of the country: Dar es Salaam (the business capital of Tanzania), Mbeya (one of the regions with high produce of agricultural products, also, it is bordering Malawi, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo providing opportunities of businesses for people of those countries), Dodoma (the present capital city of Tanzania famous for growing grapes), and Mwanza (a city which is a source of water for lake Nile and bordering Uganda and Kenya through Lake Victoria ). CBE also is in collaboration with international universities such as the University of Eastern Finland in Finland, the Dalian University of Technology and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, a university in Chengdu

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province of China, and Stockholm University in Sweden. Furthermore, CBE in 2016, was selected as the best HEI in Tanzania. Following these characteristics, CBE was chosen as the main study area.

This study’s population involved teachers, students, and members of the management team from all four campuses of CBE. 1170 participants took part in the study during different stages of the DSR framework implementation [57], [58]: 296 teachers, 863 students and 11 members of the management team. In the study, DSR framework was complemented by the Activity Theory (AT) [59]. While the DSR framework elaborated the stages of development of the artefact, the AT saw the integration of technology as a tool that mediates social action, including the relationships of humans in undertaking those actions. According to Kuuti [59], the structure of an ‘activity’ comprises four elements namely, tool, subject, object, and an outcome realized after the transformation process completed. The transformation defined in the study relates upon realizing an innovative teaching and learning in HEIs.

The narration of the dissertation is aiming at responding to the four research questions related to the aspects of co-designing and co-developing a mobile educational tool. Technology in the education sector in both developing and developed countries has proven fruitful and valuable [60]. Using mobile education tools has itself been an innovation in education and educational innovation, at all levels and in higher education [61].

This dissertation, therefore, narrates the processes of designing and developing a mobile education tool through four main aspects:

1. broad assessment of contextual requirements, including an understanding of the problem,

2. co-design and co-development of a mobile education artefact or a tool to support an innovative teaching and learning,

3. demonstration of the tool, and 4. co-evaluation of the tool

These four aspects are described through the combination of the DSR framework and the AT [59], [57]. Furthermore, the four-cycle model of IS

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DSR [62] concretizes the evaluation the tool prototype while considering the external environment outside its application context.

The motivation of the research is to enable the teachers as well as the students of HEIs in Tanzania to attain a level of innovative teaching and innovative learning respectively and thereby minimize educational-related challenges they faced, including the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which call for social distancing. Furthermore, the rapid penetration of mobile technologies in emerging economies, and Tanzania in particular, has catalyzed the possibility of using mobile education tools to enhance both innovative teaching and learning in HEIs.

The co-designing & co-development of the College of Business Education Mobile Education Tool (CBEMET) prototype as an artefact was conducted within a DSR approach combined with the AT. The AT was used as the theoretical lens to examine the student–teacher relationship in the requirement definition, co-designing and development, demonstration, and co-evaluation of the CBEMET for innovative teaching and learning constituting an activity system: (a). tools (technical and human), (b). the norms (teacher–student relationship in the co-designing and co-evaluation activities), (c). labour divisions (i.e., group dynamics and student–teacher roles), and (d). rules (informal, formal, and technical). The Engeström’s (1987) triangle was used to define thoroughly the component structure of each instance of an activity (Figure 3.1). Furthermore, this study considered the four-cycle model of IS DSR by Drechsler and Hevner, which introduces an impact and change cycle [62]. Previous studies on artefacts concentrated on applying a DSR approach alone for the co-creation, demonstration and evaluation of the artefacts, without taking into account the impact cycle of the developed artefact [63], [64], [65], [66].

Within DSR an artefact is indeed defined as an object made by humans to be used to address a certain problem [57]. From the literature we learn that Kuuti [59] explored AT to demonstrate the use of tools in transforming human activities. Synergizing the AT and DSR four-cycle model advocates the processes of artefact design and development, considering a wider environment outside the artefacts’ immediate application context of the

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artefacts. The external environment is important to consider, as it looks at the dynamic nature of the artefact, whereby the change and impact cycle influence the design in the artefact contextual environment [58]. Considering the four-cycle model of IS, DSR is important because the external environment (e.g., government directives, policy consideration, etc.) impacts the internal application environment, e.g., at CBE, an application developed may be required to integrate with the education systems of Tanzania (Figure 3.1).

The importance of the four-cycle could be summarized as follows:

• It covers a wider application context (including an external environment) and it integrates the different sources of contextual change and dynamics into the DSR conceptual cycle.

• An extended four-cycle view (which considers an external environment to the application) allow DSR paradigm shift that integrates the proposed individual measures resulting from the literature on how to mould different dynamics within DSR into what is known as comprehensive knowledge base.

• It handles real-time-related aspects in DSR.

• Due to its consideration of dynamics, which in real sense lies in the wider environment (external one) outside the artefacts’ immediate application context (where it is being applied), it extends what is known in the original three-cycle view model.

What is narrated and believed in this study, is that for DSR method framework to be effective, analysis and consideration of the external wider environment were necessary. In 2014, the Tanzanian government directed all HEI authorities through an Education and Training Policy to use ICT in delivering education, whereby the innovations in education should be prioritized in every institution (see Figure 3.1).

The method framework to approach and develop DSR projects, as described by Johannesson and Perjons [57], highlights several activities to carry out.

These activities of the method framework comprise five systematic iterative components. The components include problem explication, requirement

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evaluation. In following these stages, the iterations of the previous steps improve the functionality of the prototype. It allows the researcher to refine and redefine requirements to enhance the functionality of the prototype to fulfill its mission increasingly and continually. Hence, the proposed artefact followed the stages described in the Johannesson and Perjons DSR method framework, through two iterative co-design processes: the first one with teachers only and the second one with the students, to arrive at the final artefact. The first iteration resulted in Papers I–III, whereby we developed and demonstrated the prototype artefact based on the requirements presented by teachers. The second iteration constitutes Papers IV–VI, which are the feedback from students and results from the final evaluation of the prototype artefact by teachers and students on all four campuses of the College of Business Education situated in four regions.

The problems that faced the teaching staff and students at the College of Business Education (CBE) were the difficulty in sharing educational content and the lack of innovative teaching and learning tools and methods. This results in discrepancies in the instructional materials used, so that for the same course in a semester the materials differed regarding coverage and quality, throughout the four campuses. Hence, students on one campus complain about the coverage of examinations of the same course in other campuses (as CBE has four campuses). This situation hinders the provision of equal education to students on all four campuses of the college. Consequently, a mobile application appeared to be a suitable solution to this problem.

Teachers and students at the CBE have mobile devices, which they use to access online information, social media, SMS, and various applications [43], [53]. Therefore, in this dissertation, the DSR’s problem explication and requirement definition stages cover the aspect of research questions RQ1 and RQ2, in which the teachers’ and students’ practical problems that were a source for the research are explored. These research questions (RQ1, RQ2) also investigate the overall functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed artefact. While the technical requirements describe the resulting prototype’s ability regarding inputs, process, and outputs, the non- functional requirements describe typical characteristics of the prototype regarding security, reliability, accessibility, and performance. In soliciting the

Mobile technology for innovative teaching and learning in Tanzanian higher education

Dissertations in Forestry and Natural Sciences

GODFREY ISAAC MWANDOSYA

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TANZANIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION