Could Institutional Virtual Learning Environments Be Stifling The Possibilities Of Learning?

Technology has a positive role to play in education, yet this role and its impact on learning are not necessarily either well established or well understood. Higher educational institutions around the world are embracing its use in various forms to support learning. African universities, both residential and distance learning institutions, are embracing these new technologies and the associated learning opportunities. To support both the practice and research of this adoption of new technology for teaching and learning, seven universities in six African countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda each received support through the Partnership for Higher Education (PHEA) Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) from 2009 to 2013. This paper reports on an inter-institutional survey to determine to what extent institutional e-learning platforms such as Moodle contribute to growing possibilities of learning; also, how social media applications and tools such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as other emerging technologies are being used to support learning in the ETI-supported universities. The analysis is based on data from 36 respondents across the seven institutions. The survey was administered online using Survey Monkey. The aim is to assess how the various changes relating to the use of technology for teaching which were brought about or facilitated by the ETI have affected technology adoption in these institutions. Data was gathered and analysed using content analysis methodologies. Selective reduction was used to determine significant themes embedded within the survey response data. The data was read, coded and categorized by drawing out words, phrases and segments. These categories were then analyzed to highlight patterns emerging from the data.