1. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20031 E-learning@USIU By Meoli Kashorda, Ph.D., MIEEE Associate Professor of Information Systems & Dean, School of Business USIU

2. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20032 Outline of presentation Institutional context and infrastructure –Kenyan economic and ICT indicators -challenges –University vision, mission and accreditation –USIU student and faculty profiles The goals of IT systems and e-learning at USIU –Effective use of the Internet for Teaching and Learning Content development and quality assurance Cost of using IT at USIU –Technology and financing challenges What have we learned?

3. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20033 Where is Kenya?

4. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20034 Where is USIU located?

5. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20035 Economic and Human Development Indicators (2001) TanzaniaKenyaSouth Africa Turkey Population (millions) 34.530.743.266.2 GNI per capita (US$ - Atlas) 27034029002540 GNI per capita (PPP $) 54097095106640 HDI rank/HDI 151/0.440134/0.513107/0.69585/0.742

6. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20036 ICT Infrastructure indicators TanzaniaKenyaSouth Africa Turkey Population (millions) 34.530.743.266.2 Fixed telephones (per 1000) 510114280 In largest city (per 1000 people) 3178415388

7. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20037 ICT readiness of Kenya (2002) (Harvard methodology)

8. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20038 University vision and mission Vision statement –To be the premier institution of higher learning in the Eastern Africa region Mission outcomes –Higher order thinking (analytical & critical thinking skills) –Literacy – oral, written and technological literacy –Multicultural perspective (how to accommodate diversity) –Preparedness for career; Desire to be of service to the community

9. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 20039 University accreditation Dual accreditation –In Kenya by Commission for Higher Education –In US by Western Association of Schools & Colleges Professional accreditation –AACSB – starts the process in AY 2003-2004

10. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200310 USIU student and faculty profiles Over 2700 undergraduate and graduate students –10% are international students from over 40 different countries Over 80 % of students in School of Business –Includes 400 majors in Information Systems program Over 300 MBA students –About 80% are executives of local and multinational business organization in Kenya Full-time faculty with diverse educational and professional backgrounds (North America, Europe, Kenya)

11. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200311 USIU MBA Tuition comparisons UG business major UG Non- business major Tuition per year/GNI per capita USIU, Nairobi $3,000$4,0004.17 Alliant Int’l University, San Diego $22,000$32,0000.32

12. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200312 MBA tuition at USIU In absolute terms, it is about 8 times cheaper to study at USIU than at Alliant Int’l University for the same MBA degree Demand for quality MBA degree programs is very high in Kenya –USIU rejection rate is about 40% Tuition fees of $3,000 competitive with other MBA programs in Kenya –University of Nairobi has a large MBA program of about 800 students – about the same fees as USIU

13. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200313 Reasons for using IT and e- learning at USIU IT (includes e-learning) is a strategic inflection point in global higher education To increase increase effectiveness of teaching and learning To increase efficiency – in learning, teaching & administration –E.g., USIU has a flat organizational structure To serve the learning needs of our graduate students –Over 80% full-time employees

14. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200314 E-learning as the Sixth Force with a 10X force The Business Existing rivals Complementors Customers Suppliers Substitute products or services (e-learning) Potential competitors (New Entrants)

15. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200315 Effective and efficient teaching There is an acute shortage of business and IT faculty in all Kenyan Universities –IT could utilize remaining faculty in a cost- effective manner Improved testing, assessment, and evaluation methods –Efficiency of the process significant for faculty with increasing workload.

16. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200316 IT and effective learning environments To improve learning resources –ability to create, maintain, and deliver learning resources which are current, consistent and readily available There is evidence that IT helps learning –Seven Principles for Good UG Education Improved communications –students/student, student/faculty, student/administration Effective integration of on-line library resources and the e-learning environment

17. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200317 Mixed-mode delivery options Classroom instruction - face to face Synchronous delivery –video conferencing –Teacher and student separated by distance, not necessarily long Asynchronous delivery –e-mail, discussion groups, notes, assignments, and experiments E-learning at USIU is asynchronous and includes classroom instruction

18. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200318 E-learning quality assurance process Life-cycle approach to developing the e-learning content with following phases: –Initiation, development, implementation, and operations and maintenance phases Initiation phase started in 1998 with small pilot projects, development phase started in 2000 E-learning content and delivery subjected to the same quality assurance process as regular courses –Learning outcomes are the same; delivery different.

19. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200319 E-learning quality assurance process (cont) Faculty member initially attends training –Training by experienced faculty member and/or on-line seminars/workshops Faculty member develops the content while teaching the regular classroom-based course Faculty teaches course again using the draft of content developed (mixed mode delivery) Content peer reviewed by another faculty member who makes recommendations Final approval by curriculum committee

20. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200320 IT Infrastructure@USIU Networked campus with institutional access to Internet –Administrative and faculty offices, library and IT labs Integrated student and financial information systems implemented since 1997 –Students can register on-line or check grades Library is fully automated with access to over 7 Internet databases for our programs Well-equipped teaching labs and student workrooms with extended opening hours

21. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200321 Cost of using IT@USIU Bandwidth is expensive in Kenya –$800/month for a 64 kb/s permanent connection Cost of a non-branded PC about $900 Software license costs are relatively high –Administrative IT system license - $20,000/year –Library system license – $24,000 per year –E-learning platform license (WebCT) - $7,000/year –Microsoft OS/applications - $45 /PC per year

22. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200322 Cost of IT@USIU Capital investment per student lab about $40,000 –Includes cabling, furniture, PCs and other networking accessories Quality IT personnel costs relatively low but still significant –About $5,000 per year in wages for e-learning system administrator No local support for e-learning platform, library or mission-critical student information system –External on-line or internal support by USIU personnel

23. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200323 How does USIU finance IT investments and support All IT investments funded using tuition –Relatively small lab fee pays for operational expenses (US$ 31 lab fee per term) –Current teaching labs being used as e-learning labs in the evening and weekends Total cost of IT systems about 8% of the total revenue –Academic IT alone is about 6% of total revenue

24. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200324 Cost/student for Internet access Type of accessTotal cost/ 10 week term (US$) Analog dial-up access (28.8 kb/s modem) $475 Digital dial-up access (64 kb/s ISDN line) $ 2450 USIU computer lab access (128/512 kb/s) $31.25

25. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200325 Current status of the MBA e- learning About 65% of foundation courses on-line About 30% of the core MBA courses on- line Goal: 100% on-line component of all MBA courses by end of AY 2002-2003 E-learning forum for faculty support –Training and peer support for content development

26. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200326 What have we learned? A well-developed Intranet is crucial for success in training and developing on-line materials –E-learning labs necessary in our environment Good and motivated faculty essential for success Quality IT professionals need to be part of e- learning project –University provides leadership Invest in faculty training, content development and quality assurance

27. Meoli KashordaWorld Education Market May 200327 What have we learned? MBA students are excited about e-learning courses – response is better than we expected in current ICT environment Developing quality e-learning content is the slowest and most challenging part of the project It is possible and necessary to develop internal capacity for e-learning even with a constrained national telecommunications infrastructure