Mobile Open-Access Revolutionizing Learning Among University Students in Kenya

2017 ◽  
pp. 144-165
Author(s):  
Margaret W. Njeru
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
University Education ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Free Access ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Sub Saharan

Today's knowledge-based economy requires that nations equip their citizens with appropriate skills, and a demand for university education has continued to soar. In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, however, the rapid increase in university enrollments has not been matched with an expansion of the relevant infrastructure, resulting in among other things, overcrowded classrooms and inadequate libraries. On the other hand, there has been a robust growth in the sector of technology globally. This chapter examines the rapid expansion of university education in Kenya and its implications on quality, as well as possible contributions of the Smartphone to learning. Challenges aside, the author concludes that the Smartphone could be exploited to supplement learning as it enables the student to access academic and research materials from credible sources that are either on free-access or subscribed-for through their home university libraries. Samples from forty-nine responses from university students are included in the chapter.

Mobile Open-Access Revolutionizing Learning Among University Students in Kenya

2021 ◽  
pp. 725-742
Author(s):  
Margaret W. Njeru
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
University Education ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Free Access ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Sub Saharan

Today's knowledge-based economy requires that nations equip their citizens with appropriate skills, and a demand for university education has continued to soar. In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, however, the rapid increase in university enrollments has not been matched with an expansion of the relevant infrastructure, resulting in among other things, overcrowded classrooms and inadequate libraries. On the other hand, there has been a robust growth in the sector of technology globally. This chapter examines the rapid expansion of university education in Kenya and its implications on quality, as well as possible contributions of the Smartphone to learning. Challenges aside, the author concludes that the Smartphone could be exploited to supplement learning as it enables the student to access academic and research materials from credible sources that are either on free-access or subscribed-for through their home university libraries. Samples from forty-nine responses from university students are included in the chapter.

Improving Electronic Information Literacy in West African Higher Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 2121-2129
Author(s):  
Ibrahima Poda ◽  
William F. Brescia
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Sub Saharan

Electronic information literacy has gained increased importance with the advent of the new information and communication technologies which, driven by the convergence of computers and telecommunications media, are crucial for facilitating, supporting, and enhancing learning and for the knowledge-based economy of the future. In “Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Action Framework to Build Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure,” African ICT experts appointed by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), have described the potential of the Internet to improve learning in higher education and established the foundation for this to become a reality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The AISI document that the group of experts produced was adopted by the ECA Conference of Ministers as the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) in 1996.

Improving Electronic Information Literacy in West African Higher Education

2005 ◽  
pp. 427-432
Author(s):  
Ibrahima Poda ◽  
William F. Brescia
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Sub Saharan

Electronic information literacy has gained increased importance with the advent of the new information and communication technologies which, driven by the convergence of computers and telecommunications media, are crucial for facilitating, supporting, and enhancing learning and for the knowledge-based economy of the future. In “Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Action Framework to Build Africa’s Information and Communication Infrastructure,” African ICT experts appointed by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), have described the potential of the Internet to improve learning in higher education and established the foundation for this to become a reality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The AISI document that the group of experts produced was adopted by the ECA Conference of Ministers as the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) in 1996.

Blended Learning in Nigeria

2011 ◽  
pp. 190-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nwachukwu Prince Ololube
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Quantitative Assessment ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
University Education ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Assessment Design ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Performance ◽  
University Setting

Blended learning requirements are increasing, in part because of the population explosion and policies pertaining to the democratization of education. Yet, thousands of students and faculty remain deficient in the use of blended learning to advance technology in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa. This research employed a quantitative assessment design aimed at improving best available practices, processes, and performance in terms of the blended learning offered in a university setting. A six-point Likert-type questionnaire was used to gather data. Multiple statistical procedures were employed in the subsequent analysis—percentage, mean point values, chi-square, and ANOVA. Majority of the respondents to the questionnaire agreed that the teaching of MIS to students is effective and has a positive impact on their academic achievements. This groundbreaking research presents a realistic resource for the practical application of blended learning in university education in Nigeria, as well as a comprehensive view of the benefits and problems of the applicability of blended learning.

scholarly journals Neoliberalism and University Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

SAGE Open ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824401350493
Author(s):  
James R. Ochwa-Echel
Keyword(s):  
University Education ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

Second-hand clothing encounters in Zambia: global discourses, Western commodities, and local histories

Africa ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Tranberg Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
The Third World

AbstractThe rapid expansion in commercial exports of second-hand clothing from the West to the Third World and the increase in second-hand clothing consumption in many African countries raise challenging questions about the effects of globalisation and the meanings of the West and the local that consumers attribute to objects at different points of their journey across global space. This article draws on extensive research into the sourcing of second-hand clothing in the West, and its wholesaling, retailing, distribution and consumption in Zambia. Discussing how people in Zambia are deahng with the West's unwanted clothing, the article argues that a cultural economy is at work in local appropriations of this particular commodity that is opening space for local agency in clothing consumption. Clothing has a powerful hold on people's imagination because the self and society articulate through the dressed body. To provide background for this argument, the article briefly sketches recent trends in the global second-hand clothing trade that place the countries of sub-Saharan Africa as the world's largest importing region. There follows a discussion of Zambians' preoccupation with clothing, both new and second-hand, historically and at the present time. It demonstrates that the meanings consumers in Zambia attribute to second-hand clothing are neither uniform nor static but shift across class and gender lines, and between urban and rural areas. Above all, they depend on the cultural politics of their time. In dealing with clothing, people in Zambia are making sense of post-colonial society and their own place within it and in the world at large.

The U.S. Textile and Apparel Industry in the Age of Globalization

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1850013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Rees ◽  
Jan Hathcote
Keyword(s):  
Apparel Industry ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Quota System ◽  
Textile And Apparel ◽  
Textile And Apparel Industries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Textile And Apparel Industry ◽  
The U.S

The contemporary U.S. textile and apparel industry has faced significant challenges as the volume of imported goods entering the domestic market has continually increased. In attempts to both foster development in select world regions and maintain viability of the domestic industry, the U.S. government has negotiated a variety of trade agreements extending preferential treatment, including duty- and quota-free access to the U.S. market for apparel and other textile products manufactured in developing countries in the Caribbean Basin, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Andean region. In addition, provisions included in the agreement granting China, the world's largest producer of textiles and apparel, admission to the World Trade Organization have allowed this country to become an immediate beneficiary of the MFA quota phase-out. This article examines the current state of the domestic textile and apparel industry and provides an overview of trade agreements enacted during the past decade that are of specific interest within the textile and apparel sector. It offers insight into challenges and opportunities for both the domestic textile and apparel industries in an age of rapid globalization as final elimination of the existing quota system in 2005 approaches.

scholarly journals Hinari and Agora: free access to scientific information for poor countries

2003 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. F04 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Tola
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Information ◽  
World Health ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Right

In the midst of a debate on access to information, the World Health Organization and the FAO have decided to develop a strategy to guarantee the right of poor countries to have free access to scientific publications. This right is often denied, mainly because of high subscription costs. For this reason, universities and research centres in southern countries must forego buying magazines, which are a valuable instrument for updating, and exchanging information on research and scientific issues. This choice has been made in an historical period when the industrialized world is marked by a knowledge-based economy.

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