Browsing by Author "Fredriksson, Marketta"

The explosion of the international networking and the rapid development of mobile networks challenges the learning process to take place in the Internet. E-learning is a central aspect in the international educational cooperation. Due to the exponential growth of higher education in the developing countries, the quality of education is more important than ever. There is an immediate need for the reliable research evidence for well-designed online education in the developing and politically unstable countries, where the development aid is targeted. The combination of the exponentially increased demand for the higher education and rapid development of mobile technology requires all parties of the co-operation to map out the success factors of online education as well as investments based on research data and training to work in the online environment. In this thesis, the challenges and possibilities of online education in Kenya were mapped out and the results of analysis led to identifying the success factors. The research method was an integrative literature review. The information retrieval covered multiple databases and was carried out extensively with explicitly executed literature searches. The searches from relevant databases were conducted and finally 17 articles were included in the review. The chosen articles for the review were identified on the screening process according to inclusion criteria and analyzed with a theory driven content analysis. The analysis was based on literature related to the current state of the e-learning infrastructure and e-readiness of universities in Kenya. Analysis resulted in five dimensions which contributed the research problem. The analysis highlighted how the technological, operational, pedagogical, social and impact factors were affecting the success. The review exposed the central challenges that should be taken into special consideration, when planning the pedagogical and technical implementation as well as resourcing of the online education projects in eastern Africa. The results can be utilized in the education field in development projects and in planning of international joint degrees. The majority of challenges in the blended learning education are related to scarce resources, the weakness of infrastructure and rapidly growing number of students. In a country like Kenya, it is rough for a university to cope with these challenges alone.