Browsing by Author "Ghasia, Mohamed A."

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    Micro-credentials in higher education institutions: An exploratory study of its place in Tanzania
    (International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 2019) Ghasia, Mohamed A.; Machumu, Haruni J.; DeSmet, Egbert
    Micro-credentials represent an alternative approach to career and professional development whereby an individual’s skills, achievements, and accomplishments are recognised. They offer the possibility to enhance skills, manage career pathways, and add practicality to the academic content. Moreover, micro-credentials are cost-effective professional development strategies that significantly minimise employee training costs and time. Also, micro-credentials in higher education institutions (HEIs) allow for the integration of digital badges within the university curricular and community engagement activities to inspire connected and lifelong learning for the professional development of students, educators and communities in formal learning settings. This paper explores ways in which micro-credentials can be offered in Tanzanian universities. Specifically, we explore educators’ perception, readiness and implementation strategies. In-depth interviews with thirty-one lecturers, fifty-four students and twelve educational technologists were deployed. Purposive sampling was used to identify the four Tanzanian universities involved in the study, and theoretical sampling was used to identify lecturers, students and educational technologists. Data were analysed using NVIVO software in accordance with the Strauss and Corbin Grounded Theory. The results suggest that university lecturers and students are optimistic that micro-credentials will stimulate lifelong and connected learning as well as expand the scope of the universities’ mandate. However, to leverage from these potentials, multi-level interventions are needed. We recommend the creation of a micro-credentials ecosystem, formulation of strategies and policies, deployment of necessary infrastructure as well as building relevant skills. Implications, contributions and limitations of the study are discussed in line with the findings. Finally, the paper contributes to the literature on the implementation of micro-credentials in higher education (HE).
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    Supporting micro-learning access through the Ujuzi Mobile App: a brokerage deployment model and pilot study for Tanzanian Higher Education Institutions
    (Ghent University, 2020) Ghasia, Mohamed A.
    It is evident that the high proliferation of mobiles technologies in resource-constrained areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa is improving the wellbeing of the communities. Hailed for its allegiance, affordances as well as ubiquitous nature, mobiles (smartphones, tablets etc) have assumed the empowering and liberating roles to the powerless and the underprivileged communities. In fact, mobiles are seamlessly connecting communities to the global public spaces on the Internet. Hence, the underprivileged, as well as remote communities through their mobiles are able to participate in public debates, traverse the Internet nodes to communicate and access public learning resources. The micro-learning approach represents the new development in education sectors. It is the learning approach that uses small learning units (chunks) also known as micro-learning units to deliver a learning experience to learners. Hailed for improving retention capacity, competition rate, flexibility, interactivity as well as cost-saving, micro-learning brings its own challenges related to access and deployment. Through the application of a combination of theoretical frames, namely the Design Science Research Approach, the Connectivism Learning Theory, and the Critical Theory of Technology (CTT), together with the educators, students, technologists and members of the management teams from UDOM, UDSM, OUT, and MU, it was possible not only to explore the situation of micro-learning access and deployability in the HEIs in Tanzania but also to devise solutions for the main challenge: it became evident that the introduction of brokerage services has the potential of improving the quality of micro-learning access. The Ujuzi (translated from Kiswahili language means skills, knowledge, and know-how, accessible at www.ujuzi.ac.tz ) app implementation case at MU proposed a way of improving micro-learning access. The case has highlighted that brokerage services shorten time needed to search for and leads to quality and skills-based micro learning content Also, in this dissertation, a micro-learning deployment model is proposed to guide future researchers as well as practitioners involved in the manifestation of micro learning services. Because micro-learning research is at the infancy stage, more research is needed to improve knowledge and practices. As the forecasts concerning mobiles suggest an exponential growth in the near future, we argue that it is high time for the educational stakeholders including the decision-makers to reconsider embracing integrating mobiles into education. If we are to rely on CTT then societies have to face the realities of usage and actually participate in shaping how technologies are used. Rather than banning mobiles in an educational environment, the effort should be directed towards empowering learners in the best practices. Also, we show that an enabling environment needs to be created to identify, recognize and integrate micro learning. Specifically, there is the need to create awareness, improve digital literacy, expand loans to students, and establish quality controls as well adopt an integrated policy approach so as to consolidate developments in all social sectors. Herein micro-credentials for skills based learning play a key role.
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    Towards mobile learning deployment in higher learning institutions: A report on the qualitative inquiries conducted in four universities in Tanzania
    (2018) Ghasia, Mohamed A.; De Smet, Egbert; Musabila, Albogast
    Over the past two decades, mobile learning (m-learning) has been a purposeful area of research among educational technologists, educators and instructional designers whereby doubts and controversies over its relevancy and applicability have been keenly addressed. This paper explores stakeholders’ perceptions of m-learning deployment in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs). Specifically, we examine the potential of m-learning for HLIs in Tanzania and the challenges that hinder successful m-learning deployment. We adopt a comparative qualitative case study design in which four HLIs in Tanzania were purposefully selected. The study uses a combination of design science research approach and qualitative methods including grounded theory, document reviews, and observation. The respondents included university lecturers, students and ICT experts, who were selected for the interviews through theoretical sampling. The transcripts were loaded, coded and analyzed in NVIVO software. The results indicate that mobiles (smartphones, tablets, laptops, feature phones etc.) are widely used in the HLIs. Stakeholders perceive that m-learning deployment is important and useful because it improves the quality of the learning experience. The results further indicate that there are financial, pedagogical, technological, infrastructural, individual – and policy–related challenges that hinder the successful deployment of m-learning in HLIs in Tanzania include limited network coverage, some students´ inability to afford mobiles, lack of qualified staff for mobile content and administration preparation, gaps in the existing policies, and faulty course design. However, our results show that participants are optimistic about the potential of m-learning in the HLIs of Tanzania. They expect m-learning will improve access to learning resources, and teacher-student and student-student interaction without being restricted by time or place. Thus, m-learning is considered to have the potential to address issues of crowded classrooms, expertise, access to learning materials, flexibility of the learners, and remote connectivity. We recommend that HLIs should prioritize m-learning and commit resources to the success of the related projects. We also recommend that the governments and stakeholders provide policy interventions, subsidize mobile technologies, expand network coverage, build capacity within and outside HLIs, and improve digital literacy by integrating ICT education at all levels of education