Articles, Conferences and Workshop Papers Collection

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Browsing Articles, Conferences and Workshop Papers Collection by Author "Chirwa, M. N."

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    Access and use of internet in teaching and learning at two selected teachers’ colleges in Tanzania
    (2018) Chirwa, M. N.
    Recently, the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is inevitable especially in improving education system. It is on the basis of this reality that this paper investigated access and use of Internet in teaching and learning in teachers’ colleges (TCs), basing on two selected colleges in Tanzania. The results indicate that the majority (83.2%) of respondents used the Internet for academic purposes, 61.3% used it for searching news and 50% for communication, slightly more than a half (52%) of the respondents were using Internet for games and entertainments while only (43%) used it for social network. However, the frequency of using internet for academic purposes is not convincing as only 12.5% of the respondents used it daily. There is also limited access to internet and ICT facilities in these teachers’ colleges in Tanzania. It is therefore, concluded that the parent ministry in co-operation with college principals should improve Internet access and use in TCs by ensuring that there is good access to ICT facilities that offers internet services, tutors are well trained on ICTs basics and information literacy, and that the ratio of tutors and student-teachers to computers and other ICTs available in their colleges is improved.
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    Africa's contribution to the global open access literature
    (2018-06) Chirwa, M. N.; Sife, A. S.
    This study was conducted to determine the contribution of Africa to the global open access literature. Data were extracted from the Directory of Open Access Repository (OpenDOAR). The findings indicate that only 22 (40.74%) African countries contributed 155 OA repositories in the OpenDOAR. Most of these repositories were from South Africa (33; 21.29%), Kenya (28; 18.06%) and Nigeria (21; 13.55%). Africa contributed 1,024,851 documents in the OpenDOAR, with Egypt and South Africa contributing nearly two thirds (634,025; 61.2%) of these documents. Despite its large size, the African continent had only 4.52% of the OA repositories and 0.14% of documents in the OpenDOAR. The average number of documents per repository in Africa was only 6,611.94 as compared to other continents such as Australasia (752,094.80 documents), Europe (342,896.64 documents) and North America (201,997.12 documents). The top 25 OA repositories in Africa contributed 820,574 documents, which is over 80% of the total African contribution to the OpenDOAR. Most OA repositories in Africa contained journal articles (74.84%) and they were multidisciplinary (61.73%). Overall, Africa’s contribution to the global open access literature is still very low. Efforts should be strengthened to increase the level of research and publication productivity as well as increase the capacity of institutions to develop OA repositories.
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    Contribution of East Africa region to open access literature: The case of OpenDOAR
    (2017-11) Chirwa, M. N.; Mnzava, E. E.
    This paper is based on the findings of a study that evaluated the initiatives taken by East African countries to embrace the open access movement. Specifically, the study analysed the position of East African countries in disseminating open access literature in Africa and globally; determined the contribution of each East African country to global open access literature; identified the type of document as well as Open source software they used. Moreover, the study analysed the subject content of OARs and identified the language for the archived items. The study first used literature review to determine current status of open access in East Africa, then the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) were accessed to get the required data. The results revealed that East African counties make only a miniscule contribution to Open Access literature of about 0.022 percent of items found in global OARs and 1.2 percent by number of repositories. The study concluded that East African countries with a slight exception of Kenya lag far behind in open access literature. The study, therefore, recommends more efforts to be made by individual East African countries to make necessary arrangements required to adopt and use OA repositories to enhance free access to knowledge and information and, consequently, boost socioeconomic development in the region.
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    Usage of Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository among academic staff at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science in Tanzania
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018-09) Mnzava, E. E.; Chirwa, M. N.
    Purpose – This study aims to investigate the use of Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository (SUAIR) among academic staff at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science (CVBMS). Specifically, the study looked at awareness of, attitude, self-archiving and challenges the academic staff face when using SUAIR. Design/methodology/approach – The study used survey method. The data were collected using selfadministered questionnaire with the results analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings – The study found that although there was more than one source of raising awareness on SUAIR, the university’s library, the internet and meetings were the major sources. Majority of the respondents were not aware of how to deposit their scholarly output in the institutional repository. As a result, the majority of academic staff had never deposited their scholarly work in SUAIR. Generally, the respondents had a positive attitude towards using SUAIR. Apart from lack of skills and knowledge on how to deposit research outputs, the study established that lack of time, fear of plagiarism and lack of awareness of existence of the SUAIR were significant barriers to the effective utilisation of SUAIR. Originality/value – This is the first time such a study has been undertaken focussing on the use, awareness and attitude of SUAIR in Tanzania. As such, the study findings can be used to assess the attitude of academic staff at Sokoine University of Agriculture and other universities in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa with similar operational characteristics.