Development of an Interactive E-learning Management System (e-LMS) for Tanzanian Secondary Schools

Sammanfattning: e-Learning, defined as the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for supporting the educational process, has motivated Tanzania to apply ICT in its education systems. Tanzanian secondary schools which are geographically and socially isolated face a number of problems, including a way to get learning materials. The impact of these problems is poor performance in National Examinations. This poor performance however is most noted in science and mathematics. The problem in get- ting learning materials can be reduced by employing ICT. This research developed an interactive e-learning management system (e-LMS) to be used by Tanzanian secondary schools. Tanzania Secondary Schools e-Learning (TanSSe-L) system is the name adopted for an interactive e-LMS developed. The re- search is aimed at supporting teaching and learning functions by allowing for the creation and storage of learning materials, making them available, easily accessed and sharable by students from different secondary schools in Tanzania. It is a context- driven research work of knowledge production in a specific context for application. Initially, the research work focused on two selected pilot schools; Kibaha Secondary School and Wali-ul-Asr Girls’ Seminary in Kibaha town, Pwani region. Features of the TanSSe-L system represent the standard form of any secondary school registered by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. The development of the TanSSe-L system made use of software engineering discipline. The research used Unified Modelling Language (UML) and integrated Object-Orient- ed System Analysis and Design (OOSA&D) and Model Driven Architecture (MDA) to address the System Development Life Cycle (SLDC) in a systemic way. UML design class diagram (DCD) is a Platform Independent Model (PIM) that was transformed into a Platform Specific Model (PSM) in MDA for implementation. Implementation made use of open source LMS to help generate a timely solution to TanSSe-L system development. In this specific context, focus group discussion as inspired by action re- search methodology was used. The research evolved into a triple helix process in close cooperation with other stakeholders. Finally, it is considered that replication and mirroring will make learning materials highly available to end-users.