Journal of Continuing and Distance Education

Abstract

This third issue of the Journal of Continuing, Open and Distance Education (JCODE) contains eight articles covering various themes in the field of continuing, open and distance education and e-Learning. The first article by Yeba Judith Sama Mouokuio Meno seeks to establish whether there is attitudinal gender bias towards girls in the use of computers in selected schools in Central Africa based on the theory of socialization. The author collected quantitative and qualitative data from the PanAf observatory (Indicators 4.4.3, 4.4.4, 4.4.5, and 4.4.6) which is an open knowledge-sharing resource for research on the pedagogical integration of ICTs established by the PanAfrican Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of ICTs. The target population consisted of eleven schools from Cameroon, Central African Republic and Congo. The findings demonstrate that there is an attitudinal gender bias towards girls in computer use due to the female students’ perception of themselves, ignorance, public opinion and their parents. The second article by Angeline Mulwa, Kyalo Ndunge, Omondi Bowa and Guantai Mboroki explores the relationship between ICT infrastructure and readiness to adopt e- learning in secondary schools in Kitui District Kenya. Data was collected from 15 provincial and 36 District schools selected through stratified random sampling. Two way ANOVA at 0.05 and regression analysis results showed that institutional factors such as infrastructure (connectivity, sources of energy and e-equipment) have a significant influence on readiness to adopt e-learning. They recommend that government should address the issue of e-learning infrastructure, human resource capacity and the attitude of secondary school principals, teachers and students towards the adoption of e-learning in secondary schools before embarking on full scale implementation. The third article is a study by Nkehsera Claire Massano Ndangle who investigated the use of ICTs in selected higher teacher training colleges in Africa. The purpose of the study was to identify the level of ICT knowledge among teacher trainers, find out how they use this ICT Knowledge and establish the challenges ICT usage posed. Data was collected from the Pan African Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration a study on faculty perceptions of their technology professional development needs and how these needs relate to faculty use of instructional technology in two Ghanaian teacher education universities. 132 teacher education faculty members were selected purposively. The study used survey methodology supplemented by interviews. The study found no significant relationship between faculty perceptions of their technology professional development needs and faculty use of technology for teaching and learning. However, the authors explain that this insignificant relationship could be due to limited technology knowledge and skills, limited participation in the technology innovation decision process, and inadequate opportunity for faculty to have hands-on experimentation with technology in instruction because of limited technology resources in classroom settings. This study by Gerald Kimani, Augustine Kara, Lucy Njagi and Margaret Ruinge, which is the eighth article, examined students’ experiences and perceptions of Master of Business Administration offered through distance methods at Kenyatta University. The sample consisted of 40 students enrolled in the programme. They report that majority of the students are adults with social and professional responsibilities and enroll largely because of future career prospects and flexibility of the programme. However, challenges related to irregular and untimely supply of the modules, poor coordination, delayed examination results and poor record keeping were cited. The need to improve on provision of high quality study modules, instructor – student interaction and students’ support services are recommended.