Exploring Effective Educational Technologies for Supporting Students Learning Sustainably: The Case of Mzuzu University ODeL.

Mkandawire, Chancy Chakwananga (2025) Exploring Effective Educational Technologies for Supporting Students Learning Sustainably: The Case of Mzuzu University ODeL. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The study aimed at exploring effective educational technologies to support students learning sustainably at Mzuzu University Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL). This study intended to respond to the problem of dropout of students and little use of educational technologies to support the increasing enrolment. The results from this study indicated that lack of computers and smartphones (Mean of 3.00), unfamiliarity with technology (Mean of 2.83) and lack of online academic support (Mean of 3.38) were among the factors which led to dropout of students at MZUNI ODeL. The ODeL administrators agreed to these factors with means of 2.80, 2.60 and 3.60 respectively. The study further found that smartphone (95.7%) and laptops (100%) were popularly used technological devices among students, instructors, and administrators. Moodle, WhatsApp and Email were identified as popularly used technological applications for learning. The students also liked the content for learning be represented in audio and video clips. It was also found that the institution could not use virtual labs and assistive technologies. Lastly, 20 instructors (90.9%), 5 administrators (100%) and 99 students (87.6%) were willing and accepted to use educational technologies but this was affected by unstable network and electricity blackout. It was therefore recommended that the institution should train the staff and students on technology use, establish virtual labs, upgrade their internet speed, use additional energy such as solar and distribute power banks to staff and students. Keywords: student support; dropout; educational technologies; technology acceptance

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