Browsing by Author "Kissaka, Mussa M."
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Item Developing and Piloting Interactive Physics Experiments for Secondary Schools in Tanzania(Educational Methods, 2015-09) Msoka, Vidate C.; Kissaka, Mussa M.; Kalinga, Ellen Charles; Mtebe, Joel S.Students in secondary schools in Tanzania have been facing difficulties in conducting laboratory experiments. This has been due to acute shortage of laboratory facilities and poor teaching methodologies. Consequently, students perceive science subjects as not attractive, difficult and irrelevant to understand the world around them. An interactive physics experiment was developed and piloted in two schools with 157 students to investigate whether interactive experiments can be used as an alternative to physical experiments. Results show that students found the interactive experiment was easier and more efficient than physical experiment and therefore, can be used as an alternative to physical experiments.Item Developing Multimedia Enhanced Content to Upgrade Subject Content Knowledge of Secondary School Teachers in Tanzania(2015-11-20) Mtebe, Joel S.; Kibga, Elia Y; Mwambela1, Alfred A.; Kissaka, Mussa M.The failure rates and lack of interest amongst students in science and mathematics in secondary schools in Tanzania is a serious problem. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) implemented a project to enhance and upgrade the pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of teachers in selected difficult topics in science and mathematics in secondary education. This article reports on the process involved in the development of multimedia enhanced content that involved teachers, facilitators, and technical staff. The developed content was evaluated for its satisfaction using a sample of 72 experts that included teachers and instructors after using the content for 10 days. Generally, respondents were satisfied with the quality of the developed multimedia enhanced content. However, accuracy had a minimum percentage of users’ satisfaction with 37%. This shows that the majority of the content had spelling and grammatical errors that were supposed to have been corrected before producing the final product. Although this is ongoing work, we believe that the lessons learned from our efforts can be useful to similar organizations planning to develop multimedia enhanced content for educational purposes.Item Enhancing the Quality of Computer Science Education with MOOCs in Sub-Saharan Africa(Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2016-02-02) Mtebe, Joel S.; Kissaka, Mussa M.The quality of computer science education in higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is reported to be poor. This is due to acute shortage of well-trained faculty members, irrelevant and outdated curricula, and poor teaching methodology. Although several interventions exist to improve the quality of computer science education in the region, there have not yet been many attempts to systematically adapt and integrate Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in computer science education. This chapter presents approaches that can be used by faculty members to adapt and integrate MOOCs in order to enhance the quality of computer science education. These approaches are the first steps towards helping faculty members and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa to utilize the potential of MOOCs to improve the quality of computer science education and to equip students with employable skills for both local and international IT industry.Item Factors Influencing Teachers’ Use of Multimedia Enhanced Content in Secondary Schools in Tanzania(2016-02) Mtebe, Joel S.; Mbwilo, Betty; Kissaka, Mussa M.Tanzania is faced with a severe shortage of qualified in-service school science and mathematics teachers. While science and mathematics account for 46% of thecurriculum, only 28% of teachers are qualified to teach these subjects. In order to overcome this challenge, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) implemented a project to use multimedia-enhanced content to upgrade subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers in secondary schools. A total of 70 topics and 147 subtopics were developed and enhanced with various multimedia elements. The content was used to train 2,000 in-service science and mathematics teachers from secondary schools in 19 selected centers countrywide. However, the presence and availability of this content does not automatically guarantee that teachers will use them. For this content to improve teachers’ subject content knowledge, they must be accepted and used by teachers in secondary schools. This study examines factors affecting teachers’ acceptance and prolonged use of developed multimedia-enhanced content using the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) as a research framework. A sample of 1,137 teachers out of 2,000 was collected and tested against the research model using regression analysis. With exception of performance expectancy, all other factors had a statistically significant effect on teachers’ acceptance and use of the developed content. The government and other stakeholders can use these findings to develop strategies that will promote acceptance and use of the developed content in secondary schools in Tanzania.Item Heuristics for Evaluating Usability of Learning Management Systems in Africa(2015-04-22) Mtebe, Joel S.; Kissaka, Mussa M.The adoption and use of various Learning Management Systems (LMS) to enhance education in Africa is becoming common. However, the majority of institutions have been adopting these systems without conducting usability evaluations. As a result, users tend to find these systems not easy to use, learn and do not meet their learning objectives. At the moment, there is relatively small and inadequate heuristics that can be used to evaluate LMS taking into account both system features and didactic effectiveness. This study presents a comprehensive heuristics usability that consolidates interface usability, didactic effectiveness and motivation to learn. The heuristics were validated through expert evaluation of the University of Dar es Salaam and Shuledirect systems. The proposed heuristics managed to uncover several usability problems. The findings from this study have shown that the proposed heuristics are appropriate and effective to be used for evaluating LMS deployed in Africa.Item Using SMS Mobile Technology to Assess the Mastery of Subject Content Knowledge of Science and Mathematics Teachers of Secondary Schools in Tanzania(Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research, 2015-11-20) Mtebe, Joel S.; Kondoro, Aron; Kissaka, Mussa M.; Kibga, EliaSub-Saharan Africa is described as the second fastest growing in mobile phone penetration in the world more than in the United States or the European Union. Mobile phones have been used to provide a lot of opportunities to improve people’s lives in the region such as in banking, marketing, entertainment, and paying for various bills such as water, TV, and electricity. However, the potential of mobile phones to enhance teaching and learning has not been explored. This study presents an experience of developing and delivering SMS based quiz questions used to assess mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics secondary school teachers in Tanzania. The SMS quizzes were used as a follow up support mechanism to 500 teachers who participated in a project to upgrade subject content knowledge of teachers in science and mathematics subjects in Tanzania. Quizzes of 10-15 questions were sent to teachers each week for 8 weeks and the results were analyzed using SPSS. Results show that teachers who participated in chemistry and biology subjects have better performance compared to those who participated in mathematics and physics subjects. Teachers reported some challenges that led to poor performance, This research has several practical implications for those who are implementing or planning to use mobile phones in teaching and learning especially in rural secondary schools in sub-Saharan Africa