Counting what counts: A researcher productivity scoring framework for South African's universities of technology

One of the three objectives of academic institutions all over the world is that of ensuring and upholding vibrant research productivity. For developing countries such as South Africa, public spending on research and development provides mechanisms for this. The South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is the custodian of government research funds. Evidence shows that DHET continues to grapple with the challenge of objectively measuring research productivity from the research funds invested in universities. The current funding framework applied by DHET has received numerous criticism one of them being its quantitative nature - it rewards quantity as opposed to quality research. This problem is more pronounced in Universities of Technology (UoTs) where, after more than ten years of operating as universities, the culture of research is not yet fully entrenched. Acknowledging the critical role played by research productivity measurements, we present a research productivity and quality measurement framework for UoTs. Using a case study of one of the UoTs, quantitative data relating to 48 aspects of the of existing research incentive system was used in determining the system’s effectiveness and efficacy in stimulating researchers’ activities. The proposed Framework consists of three components on: how to motivate researchers, what/how to measure research performance and how to incentivise researchers. Using an actual dataset of research outputs from the case study, an illustration on how to apply the framework has been provided. The results confirm our Framework’s ability to “count what counts” and proven the statement that “not everything that can be counted counts”

Cloud SAMS: Cloud computing solution for public schools within South Africa's ‘second economy’

Published Conference ProceedingsCloud computing is coming of age; it involves on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. There is an emerging consensus that cloud computing will play a critical role in redressing the digital divide especially in rural areas of Africa. In this paper, we report on a success story to this end; the use of cloud computing in expanding the access of students' records management system to resource-constrained schools in the Free State province of South Africa. This was motivated by the fact that despite the proven tight correlation between availability of data and quality of education, many schools that are considered part of the `second economy' in South Africa continue to operate in uni-direction data flow arrangements that do not provide them with adequate data for critical decision making. We implemented and evaluated a Cloud based School Administration and Management System; hereby called `Cloud SAMS' for these resource-constrained schools in the province (they account for over 80% of all schools). Starting off with 5 schools and later ramping it up to 50, `Cloud SAMS' enables schools to securely and privately share one copy of the system maintained in the cloud; this brings on board several benefits - low cost, faster implementation and resilience to failures

POSSIBLE CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATING ICTS INTO THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN THE FREE STATE

ArticleInformationCommunicationTechnologies(ICTs)arebecomingahugepartofthepublictransportationsystemsallovertheworld.ICTsinpublictransportation,alsoknownasIntelligentTransportationSystemsarerelativelynewinSouthAfricaandevenunheardofinsomepartsoftheFreeStateprovinceofSouthAfrica.Thesetechnologies,whichincludeelectronicfarepayments,VariableMessageSigns,AutomaticVehicleLocation,CCTVsurveillance,mobileapplicationsandtheinternetareyettobeimplementedintheFreeStateprovince.TheuptakeofICTsolutionsinpublictransportationinothercountrieswasbasedonassumptionsthatitwillimprovepublictransportationthroughthesetechnologicaldevelopments.Itwasthoughtthattechnologywillimproveservicedelivery,thereforereducingtheexistingbarrierstowardspublictransportationandresultinginthepublicbeingmorepatriotictopublictransportationsystems(NelsonandMulley,2013).ChallengesarelikelytobeencounteredwhenintegratingICTsintothepublictransportationatallstagesoftheprocess,fromplanninghowtousethesolutionstothefunctionalstageofthefullyintegratedpublictransportationsystem.Therefore,beforedeployingthesetechnologies,thesepossiblechallengesshouldbeconsidered,takingintoconsiderationthecurrentstateofpublictransportation,itsmanagement,commuters,operatorsanddrivers

Internet of Things based Framework for Public Transportation Fleet Management in Free State, South Africa

ArticleThestudybasedonbestframeworkdesignusinginternetofthings(IoT).IoTreferstoanestablishedcommunicationbetweenidentifiedthingsthroughinternet;likesensors,tags,WirelessSensorNetwork(WSN),Radio-FrequencyIdentification(RFID),GPS.(Kopetz,2011),(Atzoriet.al.,2010)

Possible Challenges of Integrating ICTs into the Public Transportation System in the Free State Province, South Africa

Published ArticleThere is need for ICT in the Free State public transportation system and for its implementation to be successful, information is needed on the needs of the various stakeholders and assessment of whether those needs are possible to fulfill using ICT solutions. The conventional and traditional poor quality transportation system needs to be improved. ICTs have shown to be the ultimate solution to most public transport problems. For successful ICT integration, implementation and operation of these ICT solutions to improve the public transportation system challenges may be encountered which has to be addressed. This study investigates the challenges which are likely to be faced by the different stakeholders at the different levels of the integration process

Influence of Availability of Resources on Completion of Construction Projects in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

The paper aimed to determine influence of availability of resources on completion of construction projects in public secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya, informed by construction management and soft value management theories. The study employed purposive sampling technique in choosing 461study respondents (Principals and Chairpersons of Parents Teachers Association) who were purposively sampled to ensure homogeneity of the selected sample in ensuring that samples are drawn from each region encompassed in the target population, then followed by simple random sampling technique from each sub county. Questionnaires and interview schedules were the main data collection instruments. Data analysis involved use of statistical package for social sciences, SPSS version 21 too where both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Cronbach Alpha of coefficient of 0.927 was attained on all constructs of availability of resources, which was above 0.7 as recommended by Cronbach (1951) implying the research instruments were reliable. The correlation coefficient (R) or the beta value β of 0.577≠0 at p=0.00 indicated that the hypothesis was accepted. The coefficient of determination, R-square of 0.333 implied that 33.3% of the variance in completion of construction projects was explained by availability of resources. From the study findings, availability of resources namely funds for school construction, unavailability and or shortage of equipment and workers interferes with project quality and hinders project progress. The study concludes that availability of resources positively influences completion of construction projects. Availability of funds for school construction projects is necessary for their completion and delay in construction project funds interferes with project completion. Availability of materials and workers for school construction projects hastens project work. The current study was done in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. Future studies are encouraged to be done in both private and public secondary schools in the whole country and compare the results. In addition, the research concentrated on education sector. Future research is encouraged to cover other sectors and compare the findings. The findings are of importance to the Ministry of Education in Kenya and other interested parties in future. Future research have the basis of reference from this study. Key words: Availability of resources, Completion of construction projects, Public Secondary schools

Influence of Social Economic Factors on Completion of Construction Projects in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

The aim of this paper was to establish the influence of social economic factors on completion of construction projects in public secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. The study was informed by construction management and soft value management theories. In the study purposive sampling technique was used in choosing 461study respondents (Principals and Chairpersons of Parents Teachers Association) who were sampled to ensure homogeneity of the selected sample in ensuring that samples were drawn from each region encompassed in the target population, then followed by simple random sampling technique from each sub county. Questionnaires and interview schedules were the main data collection instruments. Data analysis involved use of statistical package for social sciences, SPSS version 21 tool where both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Cronbach Alpha of coefficient of 0.831 was attained on all constructs of social economic factors, which was above 0.7 as recommended by Cronbach (1951) implying the research instruments were reliable. The correlation coefficient (R) or the beta value β of 0.423≠0 at p=0.00 indicated that the hypothesis was accepted. The coefficient of determination, R-square of 0.422 implied that 42.2% of the variance in completion of construction projects was attributed to social economic factors. From the study findings, social economic factors namely; interpersonal skills of project manager, inflation, corruption and community involvement affects completion of construction project progress. The community should be involved directly in school projects. This will improve their perception and goodwill towards completion of construction projects in public secondary schools. The management need to be keen on price fluctuations that eventually have an effect on completion of construction projects. Future research is encouraged to cover other sectors other than education and compare the findings. The findings are of importance to the Ministry of Education in Kenya and other interested parties in future. Researchers in future have a basis for reference from this study. Keywords: Social economic factors, Completion of construction projects, Public Secondary schools. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-12-05 Publication date: April 30th 201