| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of managerial challenges on provision of DE at the faculty of external studies University of Nairobi. The study was guided by the following objectives; to find out the effect of support services on the provision of DE, to determine the effect of facilities in the provision of DE, to assess the effect of staff training on the provision of DE and to establish the effect of staff motivation on DE. The study was significant as it would enable SCDE develop distance training programmes that encourages lecturers apply technology in their teaching. The limitations were that some respondents especially the lecturers were too busy to be found to give information at the required time. Some kept postponing the interview schedules for some days before they would furnish the researcher with the required information.
The study was delimited to the school of continuing and distance education, the study was delimited to the second year students. Literature was reviewed on the following sub headings; support services, staff training, staff motivation, and facilities in a view of finding out what others had done. The study adopted descriptive survey design targeting a population of 3200 students and '100 lecturers. The sample that was selected was 150 students and 10 lecturers through stratified, simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The study used structured questionnaires, interview schedules and observation schedules as the main tools of data collection. Data was analyzed using tables, percentages and means. It was then presented in tables and then discussed as per the findings of the research. The study found out that learner support services were not adequate, facilities were inadequate, there was need to train lecturers in DE and lecturer motivation was adequate.
The study concluded that majority of the students received support services from the institution, facilities were not adequate, lecturers were not trained to teach in DE and lecturers were motivated to teach in DE. The study recommended that the SCDE needed to equip regional centres with study material similar to those in the main library, that administrators in the SCDE needed to train their lecturers in DE practices, that the institution need to equip their lecturers with needed facilities. The study suggested further research on the role of DE to offer access and equity to those in remote areas especially to those in arid and semi arid regions, a study to investigate factors influencing staff motivation in DE, a study to investigate the effectiveness of learner support services at regional centres, a study to asses the impact of instructional resources on the performance of DE students and a study to be done on the same topic but with a larger population. | en_US |
