The doctoral dissertation in the field of Computer Science will be examined at the Faculty of Science and Forestry at Joensuu Campus.
What is the topic of your doctoral research, Godfrey Mwandosya?
The use of mobile technologies in the education sector has been on increased in recent years. ICT4D for example, calls for the use of ICT in development activities and one area that needs development and enhancement is the education sector. Therefore this study has capitalized on the existence of mobile technologies to research how mobile technologies can be used in enhancing the teaching and learning scenario in higher education institutions in Tanzania. The narration of the co-design and development of a mobile education tool by the researchers, developers, teachers and students have catalysed the innovations in teaching and learning.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
The processes in the co-design and development of the mobile education tool named CBEMET had a good experience for both the teachers and students who revealed that in earlier systems they used they experienced difficulty. The reason was that they were not involved in the requirements stage in the process of acquiring those systems. The second observation was that the process of co-designing the mobile education tool had instilled in them a sense of confidence in the use of technologies for educational purposes.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
What was found in the study among other things was the enabling of sharing of educational materials among teachers, among students, and between teaches and students. The mobile education tool was installed in the College server for the teachers and students to access. What has remained is the improvement of the tool to expand to different departments to suit their needs of the application.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
The study was done by utilizing the design science research (DSR) framework narrated by Johannesson and Perjoins (2014), the Activity Theory (AT) by Kuuti, and the Four-cycle model IS DSR by Drechsler and Hevner (2007) combined together as a research model. The DSR was applied for the stages of co-design to co-evaluation of the tool, the AT was used to narrate the different activities that were taking place in all the stages until the evaluation stage. Since the tool was developed within the College, its outside impact in the wider external environment was determined by the Four-cycle model IS DSR.
The doctoral defence of Godfrey Mwandosya, MSc, entitled Mobile technology for innovative teaching and learning in Tanzanian higher education, will be examined at the Faculty of Science and Forestry on 14 December 2021 at 15 PM, in Joensuu Campus. The Opponent will be Professor Caroline Khene, De Montfort University, and the Custos will be Professor Markku Tukiainen, University of Eastern Finland. Language of the public defence is English. Public examination will be streamed live.
For further information, please contact:
Godfrey Mwandosya, MSc, gmwandosya@gmail.com, +255 754334647