Determination of Viable Connectivity Technology for E-Learning in Tanzania : Case Study of Rural Secondary Schools

• Main Author: Simba, Fatuma
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för planering och mediedesign 2012
• Subjects: Media and Communications; Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00535; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7295-237-9

In response to different development challenges, Tanzania is striving to achieve her fourth attribute of the National Development Vision, i.e. to have a well educated and learning society by the year 2025. The earmarked approach is to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education system (e-learning), in order to improve teaching and learning processes, hence provision of quality education. However, Tanzania is challenged by lack of ICT infrastructures in rural areas, which affects integration of ICT in education. This thesis presents a research work to determine a cost-effective and performance efficient connectivity technology for rural secondary schools to access e-learning resources. The research surveyed wireless technologies, in order to identify potential broadband access technologies suitable for rural areas of the developing countries. Because ICT is a very dynamic sector, the identified technologies were compared by using conceptual framework to study their sustainability and thereafter, analyzed by using techno-economic approach to determine a feasible and cost effective option. Results show that, a third generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) operating at 900MHz is a feasible and cost - effective connectivity technology for rural areas of Tanzania. Furthermore, the research employed a simulation modelling approach to study traffic differentiation and priority scheduling mechanisms in providing Quality of Service (QoS) for e-learning applications in UMTS networks. A simulation model of the UMTS network is developed and used to study performance of e-learning applications as perceived by users. Simulation results showed that, UMTS network configured with traffic differentiation and priority scheduling can guarantee delivery of e-learning services with the required QoS. The Public Private People's Partnership (PPPP) model is proposed by this research as an implementation strategy for sustainable broadband rural connectivity solution.