Developing Multimedia Enhanced Content to Upgrade Subject Content Knowledge of Secondary School Teachers in Tanzania

Joel S. Mtebe, Mussa M. Kissaka, Elia Kibga, and Alfred Mwambela

University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Presenter: Joel S. MtebeLecturer of Computer Science and eLearning

http://works.bepress.com/mtebe/

Motivation, problem area

• Tanzania is faced with severe shortage of qualified school science teachers in Tanzania

• The country needs 26,998 secondary school science teachers immediately but the tertiary education institutions in the country can only produce 2,300 graduates annually.

• Of the current 10,400 in-service secondary school science teachers, many do not have sufficient pedagogical and subject content knowledge

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Motivation, problem area

• While science and mathematics account for 46 percent of the curriculum, only 28 percent of teachers are qualified to teach these subjects.

• Physics subject was 26.3% in 2008 and was dropped to 13.7% in 2011.

• Chemistry was 32.9% in 2008 and was dropped to 15.8% in 2011.

• Biology dropped from 15.1% in 2008 to 9.4% in 2011.

• Mathematics dropped from 9.2% in 2008 to 5.8% in 2011.

• 2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Research Objectives

• To upgrade subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers using multimedia enhanced content

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Research approach, Methodology

• Need assessment to identify topics that were difficult to some students and thus needed improvement

• Perceived difficulty topics to teach and for students to understand were identified.

Subject Topics SubtopicsPhysics 20 34Chemistry 20 47Biology 14 34Mathematics 16 32Total 70 147

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Research approach, Methodology

• Course content template was developed to guide teacher during digitalization process.

• Using the template 12 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) ( 2 for each subject) developed the content blue print under the support of instructional designers

– summarized directly from secondary education textbooks– summarized from teachers’ handouts – downloaded from OER repositories and other Internet sources but

they were edited to meet the context of a given topic

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Research approach, Methodology

• Course content were then integrated with various multimedia elements

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Subject/Type Physics Chemistry Biology Mathematics

Total

Edited Videos 16 6 39 7 68

Animations 7 4 1 45 57

Recorded Videos 10 9 5 1 25

Still pictures 0 0 5 0 5

Research approach, Methodology

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Research approach, Methodology

• The developed multimedia elements were integrated into content using Lectora software and burned into DVDs.

• The same content were uploaded in a customised Moodle LMS accessible via http://retooling.udsm.ac.tz.

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Validation of Multimedia Enhanced Content

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

• The content was validated by a team 60 facilitators from four universities (DUCE, MUCE, OUT and SUZA) and 20 teachers from secondary schools – If the content covered the knowledge gap identified in the

needs assessment of difficult topics– The quality of multimedia elements – If multimedia elements were meeting the proposed

instructional principles and– The design and presentation of the multimedia enhanced

content.

Validation-Interface

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual UniversityStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0% 1%

21%

53%

25%

Easy to UseUser-FriendlyEasy to Learn

• Respondents were asked to rate the ease of use, user-friendliness, and the ease to learn the interface.

Validation-Content quality

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

• Respondents were asked to rate the quality of the multimedia enhanced content.

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

0% 1%

15%

42% 42%

Up-to-Date sufficient educationally significant

Validation-Content Accuracy

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

• Respondents were asked about the accuracy of the content and if the content was free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

0%

4%

28%

58%

10%

Spelling errors Accurate

Problems may not be where you think they are…

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Way forward

• The content were improved and used to train 2,000 teachers in 19 centers countrywide.

• Conducted Pre test and Post testing

• Formative assessment via SMS quizzes and reminders to assess the mastery of subject content knowledge of science and mathematics teachers.

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University

Thank you

2015 2nd International Conference of the African Virtual University