Challenges and instructors’ intention to adopt and use open educational resources in higher education in Tanzania

Joel Samson Mtebe,Roope Raisamo

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v15i1.1687

Abstract

<p>Higher education in Tanzania like in many other Sub-Saharan countries suffers from unavailability of quality teaching and learning resources due to lack of tradition, competence, and experience to develop such resources. Nevertheless, there are thousands of open educational resources (OER) freely available in the public domain that can potentially improve the quality of existing resources or help to develop new courses. The uptake and reuse of these resources in higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Tanzania has been very low. The study applied the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model to elicit instructors’ intention to adopt and use OER in teaching. The paper also investigated challenges that hinder instructors to adopt and use OER. A sample of 104 instructors selected randomly from five HLIs was collected and tested against the research model using regression analysis. The study found effort expectancy had significant positive effect on instructors’ intention to use OER while performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and social influence did not have significant effect. Challenges that were found to hinder instructors to adopt and use OER are discussed. The findings of this study will help those who are involved in OER implementation to find strategies that will maximize OER adoption and usage in higher education in Tanzania.</p>

Highlights

The past decade has seen the tremendous development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the internet in Tanzania
In terms of institution distribution, 52.9% of respondents were from University of Dar Es Salaam (UDSM), 12.5% from Dar Es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), 8.7% from Dar Es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), 18.7% from Mkwawa University College of Education (MUCE), and 7.7% from Ardhi University (ARU)
Some higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Tanzania are still faced with inadequate ICT infrastructure which hinders the adoption and use of open educational resources (OER) in teaching

Summary

Introduction

The past decade has seen the tremendous development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the internet in Tanzania. The price of ICT equipment has decreased significantly and it has become affordable to the majority of Tanzanians. These developments have heightened the need for higher learning institutions (HLIs) to use ICT to embrace educational delivery. Institutions have been spending a considerable amount of resources to procure, install, and maintain various ICT equipment as well as information systems to complement face-to-face delivery. 80.2% of HLIs in Tanzania had installed eLearning systems by the end of 2011 (78% Moodle and 2.5% Blackboard) (Munguatosha, Muyinda, & Lubega, 2011) while others were using audiotapes, CDROMs, videotapes, video conferencing, and other eLearning technologies (Lwoga, 2012)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion