Building capacity and developing human capital: an exploration of curriculum development in ICT programmes at South African universities

There is a growing consensus on the potential for information and communications technologies (ICTs) to support socio-economic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Universities as providers of higher education are critical to developing SSA countries by, amongst others, empowering the region to develop appropriate ICT solutions for local challenges. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how contextual realities influence the development of ICT programme curricula at public universities in South Africa, a developing country in SSA, in order to meet the demand for ICT skills. After a brief discussion of the factors that influence the content and delivery in education systems an overview of the South African public higher education context is provided. Against this background the content and delivery of ICT programme offerings and the rationale behind the programmes at four South African public universities are presented in case study format and concludes with a discussion of the case studies. The paper may be of value to academic departments as examples of how other departments are responding and adjusting their offerings, to government departments and policy makers by engendering a better understanding of the impact of policy on programme development and to industry by illustrating the diverse stakeholders in higher education and academia’s responsiveness to these diverse requirements

Deploying design science research in graduate computing studies in South Africa

Design science research is a relatively recent paradigm, which has enjoyed more acceptance in information systems than in computer science. Yet researchers are increasingly accepting this new paradigm where artifacts are to be developed to solve a problem, and the knowledge that is derived during the process is recorded and contributes to the field of knowledge. It is also particularly applicable in a developing world context. In this paper we present two case studies, demonstrating how two postgraduate students used design science research during their research. We reflect on the lessons learned and explain how design science research can be an attractive option for graduate student research at masters and doctoral level in both Information Systems and Computer Science

Community participatory design in the information systems development process in Africa: a systemic literature review

Participatory design (PO) pertains to the different ways of incorporating ideas and acts of organisational members in designing, developing and evaluating an Information Systems (IS) artefact. The context of this study is community organisations in African settings participating in the designing and developing of an IS artefact. The study traces and synthesises findings from 95 articles on community PO in Information Systems Development in Africa. It argues that community PO consists of vast diverse constructs and implementations. This produced and reproduced concept is formulated in five major themes of: conceptualisations; ethics; standards; checks and balances and approaches; and perspectives and methodologies of PD. The themes constitute the possible ways of classifying PO research and practice in African settings. The results demonstrate that there is a wide belief that participation is one of the vital ingredients necessary for successful designing of IS artefacts for human development. However, the different elements involved in PO involve much discussion on what is known and needs to be known about PO and how to achieve the desired results by PD. The study uses Critical Research philosophy to pay special attention to the behavioural and attitudinal arguments of the different PO practices on community organisations. The researcher found Design Science (OS) principles that centre on devising an artefact as appropriate to frame this work. In sum, through the use of Critical Research and a OS lens, the researcher found that community participation is important in designing a useful IS artefact, but treacherous if misunderstood and inappropriately implemented

Using Activity Theory to Understand Technology Use and Perception among Rural Users in Uganda

Implementing technologies in developing communities often involves working with people that have a very different context from the researcher in terms of lower literacy and less experience with technology. Having worked with three rural communities in Uganda and introduced an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention for water management, we use activity theory to analyse people's activities in relation to the use and uptake of the community-based ICT tool. To understand the contextual factors that influence the use of the tool, we proceed from our activity theory analysis and we unpack the perceptions and attitudes that rural technology users have towards technology. Our findings provide insights into what motivates and demotivates people in rural communities to use ICTs. We use our findings to substantiate the relevance of the intangible impacts of ICTs such as empowerment, social cohesion and improved self-worth for rural technology users. We recommend that technology designers be open to the unintended uses of the technologies they introduce in rural communities

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) adoption in South African SMEs

The advancement in technological development is now altering the conventional order in the diffusion of IT innovation from a top-down approach (organisation to employees) to a bottom-up approach (employees to organisation). This change is more notable in developed economies and has led to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon which promises increased productivity for employees and their organisations. There have been several studies on the corporate adoption of BYOD but few have investigated the phenomenon from a small and medium enterprise (SME) perspective and from developing countries specifically. This study investigated the BYOD phenomenon in South African SMEs. The goal was to identify contextual factors influencing BYOD adoption with the purpose of understanding how these factors shaped and reshaped by SME actions. The Perceived EReadiness Model (PERM) was adopted to unearth contextual BYOD adoption factors, while the Structuration Theory was adopted as the theoretical lens from which the social construction of the BYOD phenomenon was understood. The study adopted an interpretive stance and was qualitative in nature. Data was collected from SMEs using semi-structured interviews, and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The findings show that for BYOD to be adopted and institutionalized in an SME there needs to be organisational readiness in terms of awareness, management support, business resources, human resources, employees' pressure, formal governance, and technological readiness. Specifically, business resources, management support and technological readiness were perceived to be of the outmost importance to the success of BYOD. Environmental factors of market forces, support from industry, government readiness and the sociocultural factor are identified. Findings from the structuration analysis reports the presence of rules and resources (structures) which SMEs draw upon in their BYOD actions and interactions. It provides understanding on the guiding structures such as "no training" and "no formal governance" within which BYOD meanings are formed, and actions such as allowing employees to use their devices to access organisational resources without the fear of security breaches and data theft, are enacted. While it is true that the successive adoption of ICTs in organisation depends on the availability of a conducive formal policy, findings in the study show that SMEs used their business resources and management support as guiding structures of domination which were legitimized by internal informal verbal rules, lack of an institutional BYOD specific policy, minimal industry support; and the presences of social pressure

ECIS 2010 Panel Report: Humanities-Enriched Information Systems

This article builds on a panel on Humanities-Enriched Information Systems presented at the 2010 European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), held in Pretoria, South Africa, June 6–9, 2010. The aim of the panel discussion was to stimulate a meta-theoretical discussion about the relationship between the Humanities and Information Systems in a way opposite to the usual. A lot of research has been conducted on the application of computing in the Humanities, but this panel explored the reverse process of enrichment that takes place. The purpose was to give recognition to work that has already been done in this regard by means of identifying a substantial sub-discipline, but also to inspire more and deliberate research that explores ways to enhance Information Systems by interweaving insights and methods from the Humanities. Such an endeavor may enhance ICT to empower the communities using these technologies

Supporting NGO Intermediation with Internet Systems: Comparing Mobile and Web Examples for Reaching Low Income Urban Youth of Cape Town

Intermediaries are necessary to overcome challenges of Internet use for many users in the developing world. However the need for co-presence with intermediaries can be inconvenient for beneficiaries, and the process is time consuming for intermediaries. We work with an NGO programme called Link which wanted to expose high school students from low income urban communities of Cape Town to Internet career guidance content, but did not have the staff power for regular in-person meetings with all of the students they wanted to reach. We present Internet-supported intermediation, in which intermediaries create a source of content that is tailored to beneficiaries and is accessible using the most appropriate Internet technologies for the context. We discuss the use of two technologies, the web as accessed by conventional computers (preferred by the NGO), and the mobile Internet accessed through low end feature phones. In the target demographic the mobile Internet is very popular for entertainment, especially because of low cost for communication via instant messaging, but the web is more frequently used for tasks outside of entertainment. Using an Action Research approach we implement two Internet systems to support Link intermediation, one a conventional website and the other a text interface suitable for access through mobile instant messaging. We evaluate the systems to determine whether they increase the impact of Link intermediation, and compare the usage of each to determine relative adoption of the technologies for a task outside of entertainment. Students demonstrated capable but slow website use in controlled evaluations, but almost no use occurred outside of our presence. Most students were experienced mobile Internet users, and some began unsolicited use of the mobile system and demonstrated it to their peers. In eight months of simultaneous deployment website users demonstrated minimal engagement, while mobile system users made repeated visits at all hours of the day from varied locations such as homes spread across the city. Students’ most frequent use of computers took place at venues where many users competed, and they prioritised other activities over the website during that access. Mobile use could take place when these restrictions did not apply. The mobile system demonstrated the benefit of Internet support for intermediation: the number of students who viewed career guidance content through it no longer affected the Link team’s effort, while students no longer had to travel to a single meeting place to access content. The consistent higher use of the mobile system than the website shows that the mobile Internet is suitable for non-entertainment use cases by low income urban youth

A Streamlined Mobile User-Interface for Improved Access to LMS Services

Abstract— Universities in developing countries face greater challenges in implementing Learning Management Systems (LMSs) due to resource-poor settings, characterized by: low levels of ICT infrastructure; electricity outages; few computers; and limited and expensive Internet bandwidth, among other constraints. It is anticipated that if mobile phones are carefully integrated into the ecologies of LMSs, the impact of some of the above challenges in implementing LMSs would be reduced. This paper presents a user-centered design process of mobile LMS interfaces for accessing selected LMS services on mobile phones, and a user experience evaluation for a mobile LMS application implementation. From the design and implementation processes of the mLMS (mobile LMS), and the user experience evaluation of a working mLMS prototype, we conclude that: the ideas presented in the mLMS are technically feasible; the application is useful to the students and the students are encouraged to use their mobile phones to access LMS services more often, thereby reducing the over-reliance and pressure on the constrained institutional ICT resources

Balancing Migration: Overcoming the challenge to SaaS provisioning for core business activities: A South African case study

Cloud computing provides shared information and communication technology (ICT) resources to individuals and organisations, including hardware and software resources that were previously too costly for an individual organisation to manage and own. Cloud computing makes vast amounts of ICT resources available to business organisations, resources that can improve business processes and allow business organisations to leverage ICT in ways that were previously impossible. The correct implementation, adoption and usage of ICT within a business organisation can lead to enhancements in productivity, innovation, and new products and services, as well as the reduction of production costs. Recent literature has attested to the fact that the adoption of cloud computing has been much lower than expected. Business organisations that have adopted cloud computing have done so mainly in products and services that can be categorised as support or non-core activities, such as HR, accounting, and marketing. In order to understand why the adoption pattern of cloud computing in business organisations has focused mainly on non-core activities, this study aims to identify the core challenge facing cloud service providers (CSPs) that provision cloud solutions to business organisations in the investment management industry. These would include cloud solutions that investment managers can use in their core business activities. Furthermore, the aim of this dissertation is to identify how CSPs overcome the core challenge faced. A case study was performed on a single CSP that provisions a SaaS solution to the investment management sector in South Africa. The case study identified migration as the core challenge experienced by CSPs. Classical grounded theory was used to generate the theory of “Balancing Migration” being the resolution to the core challenge identified. The results of the study point to the fact that investment management organisations have processes and systems that have become entrenched in their business over many years. Migrating an established system to the cloud is more than just substituting software. Migration to the cloud requires investment managers to migrate both business processes and operating strategy, and to migrate the actual software products and infrastructure. A CSP provisioning a SaaS solution for a core business activity needs to migrate the products that they offer as well as their business strategy. The theory of “Balancing Migration” proposes that these four categories of migration challenges need to be addressed simultaneously and holistically. In summary, “Migration” is the core concern to a CSP provisioning a SaaS solution for a core business activity, and “balancing migration” is how this core concern is resolved

Dual-method usability evaluation of e-commerce websites : in quest of better user experience

E-commerce has increased substantially, as e-retailers engage with consumers online. Users require more than products and quality service; they also expect a good user experience. User experience is affected by branding, functionality, navigation, content, aesthetics and usability. This study investigates the attainment of better user experience on e-commerce websites. A dual-method usability evaluation approach – usability testing with end-users and heuristic evaluation by experts – was employed to obtain a holistic picture of how usability aspects support or hinder the user experience. Usability testing provided insights into detailed interface issues and the type of content and journey that users prefer when making a purchasing decision, while heuristic evaluation was mainly directed at overall user interface and interaction factors. In a complementary way, each method identified a high number of usability problems. Key findings are summarized, and design guidelines are identified that can facilitate the development of e-commerce websites to promote user experience.E-handel het aansienlik toegeneem, soos e-kleinhandelaars by verbruikers aanlyn betrokke raak. Gebruikers verlang meer as produkte en kwaliteit diens; hulle verwag ook 'n goeie gebruikerservaring. Gebruikerservaring word deur ‘branding’, funksies, navigasie, inhoud, estetika en bruikbaarheid beinvloed. Hierdie studie ondersoek die bereiking van beter gebruikerservaring op e-handel webwerwe. 'n Dubbelemetode bruikbaarheidsevaluering benadering – bruikbaarheidstoetsing met eindgebruikers en heuristiese evaluering deur kundiges – is gebruik om ‘n holistiese beeld te verkry van hoe bruikbaarheidsaspekte gebruikerservaring ondersteun of verhinder. Bruikbaarheidstoetsing lewer insigte in gedetailleerde koppelvlak kwessies en die tipe inhoud en roete wat gebruikers verkies wanneer hulle 'n aankoop maak, terwyl heuristiese evaluering hoofsaaklik gerig is op algehele gebruikerskoppelvlak en interaksie faktore. Op 'n komplementêre manier, het elke metode' n groot aantal bruikbaarheidsprobleme geïdentifiseer. Belangrike bevindings word saamgevat, en ontwerp riglyne is voorgestel wat die ontwikkeling van e-handel webwerwe fasiliteer wat gebruikerservaring bevorder.ComputingM. Tech. (Information Technology