Information Technology Leadership and Change in Higher Education

Higher educational institutions are widening participation through the introduction of new programs, using different approaches to deliver learning so that many people can have access to education. With the growing number of students in our higher educational institutions, coupled with learners who are working and by virtue of their job commitments cannot do traditional face-to-face education, using information technology (IT) to support lessons in higher education institutions has become very laudable. The introduction and use of technology have brought changes in the way we teach and support students in our higher education institutions. This, therefore, calls for effective IT leaders who will be able to motivate, inspire, and meet the learning needs of the diverse students in our institutions while improving teaching and learning. The IT leaders should not only be individuals who can only lead the change crusade but should be able to manage the change process.

The Contribution of Serious Games for the Success of Students in Entrepreneurship

The adoption of serious games as a complement to traditional classroom training is still an emerging theme, but it offers relevant potentialities for both students and teachers. This study describes the integration process of serious games in an entrepreneurship course over five years (2014-2018). In the first three years, the ENTRExplorer was adopted, while in the last two years the FLIGBY was used. The experience of using entrepreneurship serious games is analyzed according to multiple perspectives, such as complexity, generation of more entrepreneurial or group working skills, engagement, interactivity, learning outcomes, or even the impact on the intention to establish a new venture. The findings allowed a comparative analysis of the two games, indicating significant differences in some of those dimensions. Nevertheless, the learning outcomes provided by each game were considered relevant by the students, showing that both games can be useful in the process of learning and acquiring entrepreneurship competencies.

Pre-Service Language Teachers' Experiences in the Digital Storytelling Process

This study investigated pre-service language teachers' experiences and capabilities in digital storytelling (DST) about creating digital stories and their views on the use of DST in language teaching. A case study design was adopted. Eighty-three pre-service teachers participated in the study, and they created 25 digital stories. Data of this study came from the evaluation of digital stories and open-ended questionnaire. Pre-service teachers' digital stories were analyzed using rubrics and subjected to descriptive statistics. Moreover, the data from an open-ended questionnaire on pre-service teachers' perceptions regarding the DST in language teaching were analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that despite being novice DST-developers, pre-service teachers were capable of creating digital stories. They reported that DST had the potential to enhance students' learning outcomes. In addition, they were eager to adopt DST in their future teaching. However, they complained that DST required too much time and effort with information and communication and pedagogical skills.

Online Application System for Admission in Private Universities

The policy of education for all has increased students' numbers in both public and private universities. Applicants seeking admission in universities have increased, and many universities have come up to tap the large numbers. Efforts have been made to give access to applicants for university education. However, applicants still find problems for applying due to absence of online application systems. This implies that universities have to adopt online application systems to enhance their admissions to graduate programs. The purpose of the chapter is to present a developed online application system for supporting admission at Kampala University (KU). This chapter also presents the weaknesses of the existing application system at KU to applicants and developed an online application system designed using HTML, PHP, CSS, Zend Engine, MySQL, SQL, and JS. Thus, KU should implement the online application system and provide clear guidelines to applicants on how to use the system.

Factors in Collaborations Between Technology Firms and Universities

Collaboration between technology firms and universities is a concern that requires an in-depth study. In this chapter, a review was done to investigate factors affecting technology firms and universities. The review underscores several factors that should be considered in the said collaborations. These are institutional factors, relationship factors, output factors, and framework factors. Institutional factors were identified as resources, structure, and willingness to change. Relationship factors were identified as communication, commitment, trust, and culture; output factors were identified as objectives and knowledge and technology transfer; framework factors were listed as environment, contracts and intellectual property rights, and geographical distance. Future research should investigate the relationship between different factors and different phases of a collaboration. Further investigations should be done to look at the effect of collaborations between universities and technology small and medium-sized enterprises.

Problems and Prospects of Information Technology Use in Higher Education

This chapter presents the problems and prospects of information technology use in higher education institutions, contemplates on the ideal expectations, and presents the current situation. As a result of the analysis, it has been revealed that due to a number of problems such as lack of adequate infrastructure and the cost of transformation of pedagogy content is often region specific. Linguistic and physical barriers, intellectual infrastructure power outages in a number of institutions, and misplacement of funding impacted negatively upon information technology use in higher education. Suggestions are made to achieve this goal. Additionally, information technology has many applications in higher education ranging from interactions between the learners and teachers, development of curriculum content, administration of student, staff, and general; and in teaching and learning, designing of new instructional activities, use of virtual labs(simulations), and enabling achievement of high outcomes and quality education.

Emerging Information Technology Issues in Higher Education

This chapter explores three emerging IT issues in higher education and how an engineering college has attempted to resolve them. The issues explored include providing or recommending personal devices to students based on their degree program for the college's bring your own device (BYOD) program, exploring how to make supplied technology accessible to students and how to ensure equitable access for all students, and exploring the idea of collaborative learning spaces and VDI environments.