Browsing by Author "Birevu Muyinda, Paul"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    A Bird’s Eye View of a Sustainable Learning Game Design
    (Springer, Cham., 2021) Boogere, James; Oyo, Benedict; Eilu, Emmanuel; Birevu Muyinda, Paul
    We empirically explore learning games with an aim of empowering learners’ lifelong learning skills to enable them deal with complex situations sustainably. Learning is better by doing and the relation between learning and fun in games is essentially much deeper. It is also important for the players to clearly know the game system, which involves goals, entities and rules, in order to improve the vital individual social skills required to succeed. This chapter presents learning designs as a major determinant of motivation towards meaningful learning and challenge learners through continual provision of new aspects to learn, discover and develop oneself. Prior consequences designate that holistic learning game practices are more intense in a home compared to a school context. Moreover, the overall influence of context on perceived learning is significantly smaller than that of other experimental factors such as identification and enjoyment.
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    Contextualisation of eLearning Systems in Higher Education Institutions
    (Springer Nature, 2017) Gwamba, Gerald; Renken, Jaco; Nampijja, Dianah; Mayende, Godfrey; Birevu Muyinda, Paul
    The proliferation of digital technologies, and the emergence of global lifelong learning has steered the transformation of education from the predominant classroom based learning to more flexible technology enhanced learning. However, realizing technology enhanced learning’s much anticipated benefits towards improving the educational potential of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in Developing Countries (DCs) is still a challenge because of the high information systems failure rate. Research suggests potentially substantial misalignment between DC HEIs’ E-Learning Management Systems (ELMS) and their institutional contexts. To explore this gap, this research employs a qualitative approach based on a case study of the Makerere University Electronic Learning Environment (MUELE). We employ the Aparicio eLearning systems theoretical framework to explore the extent to which DC HEIs are aligning their ELMS within their institutional contexts. Results indicate that, ELMS are not aligned to the context of DC HEIs implying that stringent measures need to be taken to close misalignment gaps.
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    A Framework for Instantiating Pedagogic mLearning Objects Applications
    (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011) Birevu Muyinda, Paul; Lubega, Jude T.; Lynch, Kathy; van der Weide, Theo
    An increasing desire to port learning objects on mobile phones exists. However, there is limited understanding on how to pedagogically obtain access to and use learning objects on mobile phones. The limited understanding is caused by a dearth in frameworks for underpinning the development of mobile learning objects applications. Following Design Research methodology, we developed a Mobile Learning Objects Deployment and Utilisation Framework (MoLODUF) to address this problem. MoLODUF is composed of twelve dimensions, including: MLearning Objects, MLearning Device, MLearning Interface, MLearning Connectivity, MLearning Process, MLearning Costs, MLearning Resources, MLearning Context, MLearning Pedagogy, MLearning Ethics, MLearning Policy and MLearning Evaluation. The MoLODUF makes significant extensions to existing electronic and mLearning frameworks. It provides a competency set of guidelines for developing and/or evaluating applications for deploying and utilising learning objects on mobile phones.
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    Online Courseware Development in Public Universities in Uganda: The Precepts of Active, Passive and Exclusive Participation
    (Springer, Cham, 2018) Oyo, Benedict; Maiga, Gilbert; Birevu Muyinda, Paul
    Irrespective of the maturity or infancy of e-learning adoption in a university, the academic staff always have varying levels of commitment to online courseware development and delivery. Some will be actively engaged, some will be passively involved while others will remain ignorant about online courses’ issues. This paper investigates trends in online courseware development in Uganda and classifies emerging participation levels into three, namely active, passive and exclusive engagement. The latter clustering followed a survey of 120 academic staff from six public universities in Uganda, with general findings indicating low participation of instructors in courseware development. For instance, whereas 60% of the respondents had been trained in the use of authoring tools, only about a half of them had continued to use these tools for courseware development. Essentially, the survey revealed that the variation in courseware development engagement is caused by both the individual and institutional strengths (active case) and weaknesses (passive and exclusive scenarios). As such, institutional support strategies for improvement in courseware development for each of these three categories are explored and discussed. Future researchers are encouraged to test the developed institutional support strategies in their e-learning or blended learning practice.
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    Online Learning Challenges in Academia: The Case of Uganda
    (CSEDU, 2020) Bwire, Felix; Bagarukayo, Emily; Birevu Muyinda, Paul
    Online learning is the access of learning experiences by the use of technology and internet, making the learning experience more convenient and accessible. Despite the wide adoption of Information and Communication technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning, ICT integration in teaching is still ad hoc and a lot more work has to be done to realize the full potential of online learning. This study was carried to establish the challenges that were hindering the wide adoption of online learning in universities in Uganda. It was discovered that internet connectivity and power supply were not reliable most especially in universities situated in rural areas. Teachers also lacked the required skills for designing online courses even in universities where infrastructure was not a problem. Therefore, we argue that for online learning to be widely adopted, teachers need to be adequately trained in online course design and mechanisms put in place to motivate the teachers to teach online.
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    Scaffolding Teacher-Trainees’ Reflective Observations about Utilizing Emerging Technologies in Teaching Luganda Language
    (ICERI, 2015) Kabugo, David; Birevu Muyinda, Paul; Masagazi-Masaazi, Fred
    Although many young learners of the 21st century have grown up with, and generally prefer to learn using Emerging Technologies, and while pedagogically sound use of ETs has potential to transform students’ learning, a few teachers of Luganda language graduate with learning experiences of integrating ETs in teaching. One of the most crucial stages of gaining experience is to make Reflective Observations (ROs) about an s object or subject of interest. This paper emerges from a Design Based Research in which 68 teacher-trainees at Makerere University were enrolled in a semester-long (17 weeks) blended learning course aimed at cultivating their experiences of integrating ETs in teaching to revitalize Luganda language (Kabugo, 2015). The larger study was informed by Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and Reeves’ (2006) model of conducting research in authentic elearning contexts. Towards end of the semester, trainees were tasked to make presentations demonstrating their acquired knowledge of utilizing ETs in teaching Luganda language. Trainees’ presentations were video-recorded and vodcasted on YouTube. In effect, trainees were tasked to view vodcasts of their presentations and make written ROs about them. This paper deploys Discourse Analysis as an anlytic lens to analyze trainees’ ROs.
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    A social networked learning adoption model for higher education institutions in developing countries
    (On the Horizon, 2011) Maleko Munguatosha, Godfrey; Birevu Muyinda, Paul; Lubega, Jude Thaddeus
    The purpose of this paper is to establish a model for adopting social networked learning in higher institutions of learning in developing countries of Africa. Design/methodology/approach – Mixed methods research methodology involving survey and interviews was adopted in the collection of data for building the model. The model was theoretically underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model and the social constructivist learning theory, and was built and validated using structural equation modelling and Delphi techniques respectively. Findings – Adoption of social networked learning in developing countries of Africa requires self efficacy, reliable technical and administrative support, infrastructure, system interactivity, adequate budgeting and accountability, and a flexible organisational culture. Practical implications – The model provides a framework for integrating social software tools with the traditional learning systems of developing countries of Africa. This has a positive outcome of providing social constructivist information and communication technology (ICT) supported learning at low or no cost. Social implications – The model has the potential to encourage formation of communities of practice to encourage development of social learning and a student-centered pedagogy. Originality/value – The novelty of this research lies in the extension of the traditional technology acceptance models with constructs for proper budgeting and accountability and organisational culture. Time and other resources need to be devoted to developing social networked learning and the model takes this into account.
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    The Utilisation of a Mobile Phone Forum on the Winksite application in the teaching and learning of History: A case study of Pre-service Teachers at Makerere University
    (Yesterday and Today, 2018) Kyagaba Sebbowa, Dorothy; Birevu Muyinda, Paul
    The teaching and learning process is becoming a big challenge at Higher Education Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is mainly due to the constraints created by the liberalisation of university education and the implied surge in student numbers. In the area of History education particularly, the challenge of large student numbers has forced lecturers to predominantly use behaviourist teaching methods such as lecture and recitation. These methods are characterised by constrained dialogical conversations between lecturers and students, memorising of History facts, dates and limit students’ capacity to think historically, which in turn compromises the quality of learning about the past. This article argues for the use of Mobile phone forums as lenses from the present that afford dialogical construction of meanings about the past. A qualitative approach with a case study design was used limited to pre-service teachers (students) at the Makerere University, Uganda. A Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data obtained from the students’ engagement on the Mobile phone forum by means of the winksite application. The key research findings demonstrated that mobile phone forums enhance interactions between lecturers-students, students-students as a helpful precondition for collaborative learning and reflection about the human past. Conclusions was drawn with a recommendation for History educators to embrace mobile phone forums as a sustainable innovation at the African higher educational context with a potential to enhance dialogical conversations between the past the present and the anticipated future.
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    Widely Acclaimed but Lowly Utilized: Congruencing ODL Utilization with its Wide Acclaim
    (Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2019) Birevu Muyinda, Paul; Mayende, Godfrey; Maiga, Gilbert; Oyo, Benedict
    World over, open distance learning (ODL) is widely articulated and vouchered as a panacea pedagogy for increased access and flexibility to higher education. In reality, however, the actual use of ODL approaches in higher institutions of learning in developing regions is unexpectedly low and not in tandem with its wide favorable regional and international vouchering. This paper has the goal to suggest a framework for congruencing the low utilization levels of ODL approaches with their wide acclaim. Using a cross sectional survey, an inquiry was conducted among faculty across institutions of higher learning in Uganda to establish: i)the factors explaining the wide acclaim for ODL; ii) theutilization level of ODL; iii) the factors that explain the present utilization levels of ODL; and iv) a framework for congruencing low ODL utilization with the hype surrounding it. The study revealed that being an ICT-driven pedagogy, ODL has the potential to transform higher education since ICTs are transforming other sectors. Further, the majority of institutions have put in place policies to spur ODL, but even then, ODL utilization has largely remained voluntary, implying lack of policy enforcement. This has left about 50% of the faculty with no presence whatsoever on their universities’ LMSs. Low utilization was explained by factors personal or institutional in nature. Personal factors related to lack of will by faculty to get out of their perceived comfort zones and limited ODL pedagogy capacity. Institutional factors related to limited connectivity and access to ICT systems. Others were defective LMSs and lack of ODL pedagogy support. Institutions wishing to spur ODL utilization must first address people issues (soft dimensions) as they address the technological issues (hard dimensions). This way the hype will match the reality.