Professor Joel Mtebe, University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Michael Gallagher (Chair)
This seminar took place on 19th May 2021
Abstract
In this seminar, Professor Joel Mtebe from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) discusses the experiences of the university in digital education before and during Covid, and what implications that has for Tanzanian higher education and higher education overall. Professor Mtebe discusses three interrelated themes in this seminar:
• Past experience at UDSM with digital education, investments and capacity building in ICT, and relevant projects such as Halostudy, a project aimed at improved subject content knowledge of teachers in secondary schools in Tanzania, all of which were drawn on in response to Covid;
• How that past experience informed the Covid present, particularly around:
o What it revealed about digital divides within and outwith the UDSM community
o public private engagements with mobile telecoms to potentially alleviate some of these divides through zero-rated access to UDSM digital education
• Future directions for UDSM and for Tanzanian higher education overall based on these experiences.
Biography
Professor Mtebe is Associate Professor of Informatics at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Dar es Salaam. He started working as Systems Administrator of WebCT, Blackboard and later Moodle before being recategorized to academic staff in 2005. Since then, he has been involved in the introduction of various technology enhanced teaching and learning initiatives at University of Dar es Salaam and other institutions within and outside the country. He was the coordinator for the Retooling project and later Halostudy, a project aimed at improved subject content knowledge of teachers in secondary schools in Tanzania. The project was funded by the World Bank and implemented in more than 10 regions across Tanzania. In 2018, he was selected to be part of a panel of three experts to pioneer the establishment of Pan African Virtual and E-University, funded by the African Union. He also works as the Director of the Center for Virtual Learning and coordinator of eLearning Research Group which has more than 20 masters and 8 PhD students. His research interests include eLearning, Human Computer Interaction, and information systems implementation in the public sector. Publications link