Concept Paper

EDUCATIONAL DIGITAL RESOURCE-SHARING SYSTEM FOR UGANDAN SCHOOLS

By

GROUP 4 – JINJA CAMPUS

TRACK: WEB SYSTEMS

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

A Concept Paper submitted to the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology

for the Study Leading to a Project Proposal in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Bachelor of

Information Technology of Makerere University.

Supervisor

Bitwire George Albert

Department of Information Technology – Makerere University Jinja Campus

Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Makerere University

bitwire_albert@yahoo.com, +256-773-095119

September, 2015.

GROUP MEMBERSHIP:

#	Names	Registration Number	Signature
1	Mukalele Rogers	13/U/21067/EVE
2	Ssemujju Bernard	13/U/21338/EVE
3	Kwesiga Allan Geofrey	13/U/20996/EVE
4	Tusaba Pauline Joan	13/U/21363/EVE

 

1.0       Introduction

The digital divide in Uganda is reducing, because many schools across the country have acquired ICTs. However, there is still a problem of poor access to digital resources prepared as per the Ugandan schools syllabi. This concept paper gives an idea of a project to address this problem.  

2.0       Background to the Problem

In modern schools with experienced, highly trained teachers who also have good facilities and professional typists, the situation is fairly good because the teachers can use the syllabus as a guide, aided by existing textbooks supplemented by internet research, to compile and prepare digital resources for teaching their learners. The professional typists can help when it comes to preparing the materials such as exams that include complicated academic diagrams and illustrations, which novices can not draw using word processors on their computers.

However, most of the learners in Uganda are in rural schools such as UPE/USE schools. These schools don’t have well equipped libraries and the teachers are not able to prepare good teaching and learning materials. Although most of the schools are able to obtain a computer for typesetting school work and exams, most of the typists don’t have the skills necessary to make good academic materials like their counterparts in modern schools.

In both modern and rural schools, new teachers in the field of education usually experience hardships as they start their work because they don’t have resources to start with and refer to, such as past papers.

3.0       Problem Statement

This project will address the problem of insufficient digital teaching and learning resources tailored to Uganda’s, Primary and Secondary schools curricula.

Many schools in Uganda are increasingly embracing ICT for education and Computer Aided Learning (CAL). They therefore need digital resources (such as PowerPoint presentations, PDF, DOC documents, etc.) that they project/display in class to aid the teaching and learning process.

Materials on international file sharing systems like http://www.slideshare.com are not prepared according to the Ugandan syllabi, and this is why there is need for locally prepared resources.

This project’s key question is how to develop a web system that can act as a platform for connecting the various stakeholders and develop a culture of sharing and receiving open digital resources to promote education in Uganda.

4.0        Objectives

4.1 Main Objective

·         To develop a web system to act as a platform for sharing and receiving open digital resources to promote education in Uganda.

4.2  Other / Specific Objectives

·         To plan and collect requirements of the desired digital resource-sharing system.

·         To analyze and understand the system functionalities that are needed to solve the problem.

·         To design a system prototype and publish it online for user testing, review and requirements refinement.

·         To implement the final digital resource-sharing web system with the desired functionalities and continually maintain and evaluate it to establish its impact.

5.0       Methodology

The methodology to be used to achieve the stated specific objectives includes the following:-

• Requirements collection will mainly be done through online questionnaires and review of related existing systems such as file sharing and e-learning platforms. This will require prior planning such as development of the questionnaires.
• Quantitative analysis involving use of statistical tools such as SPSS will be used to analyze the responses in online questionnaires. Qualitative methods will also be employed to some extent, especially during review of existing systems.
• A database to support the proposed web-system will be designed before a suitable interactive interface having required features is designed. The web system will then be uploaded to an online server and published as a prototype for user testing and review.
• The final educational digital resource-sharing system for Ugandan schools will then be implemented using technologies including XHTML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery, angular.js and D3.js. Collection of initial resources that will be uploaded onto the website for free download will encourage many teachers to visit the website, open up their accounts and upload new resources.

6.0       Outcomes

At the end of the project, the following will be the outcomes:

• A fully operational educational resource sharing website system with materials prepared according to Uganda’s curricula.
• Increased and easy access to digital teaching and learning resources for Uganda’s Primary and Secondary Schools.
• An active discussion platform for Uganda’s Education Society, connecting colleagues and aiding them to market their educational products and services.
• A good easy-to-use interface will be based on the latest responsive web technologies and the interactive comment system will attract great traffic to the website and also form the basis for teachers to market their products and services via the website, as approved / moderated by the system administrator.

7.0       References

Home Page | Slide Share. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2015, from Slide Share International Website: http://www.slideshare.com.

Mukalele Rogers. (2011). ICT teaching and learning learning resources online portfolio. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from MUKALELE ROGERS MAGOOLA WEBSITE: http://www.rmukalele.hpage.com.