Adoption of Self-Study for University
Education in Kenya
By:Elizabeth M. Muli, Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya,
Elisha T.O. Opiyo, SCI, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya,
William Okello-Odongo SCI, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
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The participants should appreciate the:1. Background of the study
2. Statement of the problem
3. Objectives of the Study
4. Conceptual framework of the Proposed self study
Centre
5. The Methodology used
6. Prototype Modules
7. Prototype evaluation
8. Conclusions
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Education and training is one of the social pillars of the vision
2030, thus the responsibility of the education sector to create a
knowledge-based society that uphold justice accountability and
promotes result-oriented engagements.
 The call to reform the education sector and match the pool of
graduates with the skills demand of the industry to ensure
effective synergy
 The need to integrate Science Technology and Innovation in
national development process to meet the demands for global
competitiveness and sustainable development
 The study seeks to develop an Agent-based Self study centre
system to enhance learning and improve access and quality of
education for all
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Learning disparities amongst learners resulting to poor
performance and eventually they opt to drop out
Learning disruptions such as learners strikes, industrial
unrests, busy schedules at work and program transitions
Skills constraints in specialized scientific areas as a result of
rising gap between senior and junior scientists, engineers,
technologists and researchers
Formal education is limited and cuts out many who cannot
qualify due to poverty
To address these challenges this study proposes Self-study
which is defined by Knowles, (1975) as
“A process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help
of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals,
identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and
implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating their learning
outcomes p.18”.
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Research Objectives
i.
ii.
iii.
Investigate the learners experience with the current education system
Find out the readiness of the education system towards adopting self
study
Assess the impact of using agents in self study
Project Objectives
i.
Perform a system analysis process, design and develop the Agentbased self-study centre
Provide support to learners such as enrolling for units or take
exams, assistance from tutors
iii. Provide a forum where administrators can monitor the
interactions of the learners and the tutors
ii.
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i) System Access Module
To access the system all the users’ require a user name and a password where
authentication is done and access granted as shown below:-
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ii) Administrator Module
Using the Administrator’s module an administrator of the system sets and manages the system
variables such as setting academic year, number of semesters in an academic year, the course
units to be offered in a given semester among others. Below is the administrator user interface
with all the system variables.
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iii) Learner Module
When all the system variables are set learners can register for courses for available
courses as shown below:-
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Once learners have registered they can log in to the system and access their portals
where they are able to study units, access learning materials and take exams as shown
below:-
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iv) Tutor Module
This module enables the tutors to select course units they will support by providing
learning materials, manage exams and tests and also offer support to learners.
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The Agent based self-study system was evaluated by a team of fifteen (15) evaluators which
composed of students, lecturers, one ICT officer and two Administrators. The prototype
was evaluated based on the following :i.
System Usability
ii.
System functionality
iii.
System Performance
Below are the results of the evaluation:Table 1: System Usability
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Table 2: Prototype Functionality
Table 3: Prototype Performance
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The education sector is charged with the responsibility of creating a
knowledge based society but it is also faced by several challenges.
Competition is also on the rise with many universities coming up and to
remain competitive modern learning techniques have to be adopted to
offer flexibility and at the same time maintain quality of education and
training.
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This study shows that the Agent-based self-study centre will provide a
solution to some of the challenges facing the education system. Multi
agent systems also offer enhanced performance due to parallelism.
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