Moodle Adoption at the University of Zambia: Opportunities and Challenges.

Abstract

Using the Internet to enhance e-learning has become a trend in modern higher education institutes. E-learning systems are increasingly becoming an important part of the strategy for delivering online and flexible elearning. The main advantage of e-learning is the opportunity for students to interact electronically with each other and their teachers during forums, on discussion boards, by e-mail and in chat rooms. Though recognizing that the world at large will continue to use terminology in different and often ambiguous ways, the term e-learning is used to refer to the on-line interactions of a variety of kinds that take place between learners and instructors. This study set out to understand the potentials and challenges of adopting Moodle e-learning software at the University of Zambia (UNZA). Specific objectives were to establish awareness and usage levels of Moodle, potential benefits and challenges and possible adoption strategies. Results indicated that majority of UNZA community were not aware of Moodle's existence and thus did not use it. It was however, established that despite people not knowing of Moodle's existence, a larger population was willing to support its adoption. The study also revealed that UNZA has the capacity to effectively implement Moodle due to the availability of skilled manpower, ICT facilities such as Internet/intranet connectivity and infrastructure. The research further established various strategies that would lead to a successful adoption process such as (1) train lecturers first so that they could in turn train their students (2) conduct campus-wide sensitization campaigns through workshops and (3) implement Moodle in stages.