Implementation of a rewards based negotiation module for an e commerce platform

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been widely deployed in developmental programs and this has lead to the creation of a new field – ICT for Development (ICT4D). Within the context of ICT4D, various e-services are being developed, including e-Commerce, e-Government, e-Health and e-Judiciary. ICT4D projects allow Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in rural areas to increase sales and gain a market share in the global market. However, many of these ICT4D projects do not succeed, because they fail to bring enough financial value to SMMEs due to the form they currently have. An obvious example is e-Commerce, which should be a source of revenue for business organizations, but most often is not. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a rewarding and negotiation application for a shopping portal to improve the marketing of products for rural entrepreneurs. The shopping portal has been set up for the Dwesa community, a marginalized area in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The proposed system, called the Dwesa Rewarding Program (DRP) enables customers buying online to get points for some of the activities carried out on the shopping portal. It also allows customers to negotiate and make offers whilst purchasing and get rewarded for buying online. The novelty of the system is in its flexibility and adaptability. One achievement of this system is the establishment of negotiation rules which allows fairness in rewarding customers. This should in turn lead to increased sales on the e-Commerce platform in marginalized areas and subsequently increased effectiveness of ICT4D for socio-economic developmen

A methodological framework for ICT roadmap development for rural areas

The use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can support sustainable development within societies. ICTs have been supported by governments, private companies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and individuals. However, technological changes have made most ICT initiatives haphazard due to poor planning. There is no systematic plan on how to deploy services, infrastructure and devices especially in rural areas. For instance, in some cases, computers have been donated to communities in rural areas yet they are not being used, and ICT services have been deployed without the supporting ICT infrastructure. One of the solutions to addressing these ICT challenges is through the use of roadmaps to guide ICT solution implementation. This thesis proposes an ICT roadmap methodological framework to improve ICT roadmap development for rural ICT solutions. A composite methodological approach was employed in this research. This involves the use of qualitative research techniques such as participant observation, design exercises, workshops, focus groups and individual interviews supported by ethnographic studies. The Siyakhula Living Lab in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was used as the case study. Studies were conducted to identify the current state of ICTs in rural areas, the future of ICTs and overview of roadmap developments. Rural users in South Africa, ICT experts in Europe and Africa, government officials and academic institutions were engaged to understand the current ICT planning, developments and needs. The author found that there are variations in individual ICT services required by rural users but, most ICT services in need fall mainly in the areas of health, education, entrepreneurship, agriculture and employment creation for rural people. These services require ICT devices and infrastructure which include computer peripherals, mobile phones, radios, televisions and wireless infrastructure, mobile infrastructure, satellites and broadcasting infrastructure respectively. It was found that the common future ICT projections expected in rural areas include: growth of mobile usage, social networking, increase internet services and localization of services. The roadmap framework is built based on the current state of ICTs, trends in ICTs, future technological projections and the plans currently been initiated in African continent. The ICT roadmap methodological focuses on how roadmaps could accommodate infrastructure, services and ICT devices to reach rural people. This should help rural users to be able to access public services within their respective communities using available ICT devices. ICT stakeholders could use the designed framework to improve the ICT roadmap development process for rural ICT users in Africa

Lecturer Autoethnographies of Adjusting to Online Student Interactions during COVID-19

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed South African historically disadvantaged institutions, that had not yet reached advanced levels of technology use in teaching and learning, to find immediate solutions to salvage the disrupted academic year. Interactions with students, which had predominantly been face-to-face, shifted to various online platforms for lecturers to adopt emergency remote teaching approaches. Most of the lecturers were unprepared or incapacitated to make the shift to online environment. Studies have looked at the online teaching and learning experiences of students and lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic but very few have taken an autoethographic approach to their inquiry and situated experiences in historically disadvantaged institutions. In this article, as lecturers, we use autoethnographies to provide an account of adjusting to interacting with students online during national lockdowns at a historically disadvantaged institution. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was applied to guide the study. This reflexive approach is valuable, as it captures professional encounters and reflections needed to understand the effects of rapid changes to teaching and learning in response to the pandemic. Given the education disparities that already existed between South African higher education institutions before COVID-19, the article contributes to the discourse on how historically disadvantaged institutions can advance higher standards of teaching and learning to serve students better. Our reflections point to the personal, technical and structural challenges of maintaining regular online interaction. Our findings show that different approaches and techniques were applied to adjust to virtual teaching and learning. As teaching and learning methodologies have the potential to ingrain social inequalities, we made recommendations on how to improve online interactions with students from historically disadvantaged contexts

Codesigning A Big Data Analytic Tool for Girl Child Learner Drop Out from Eastern Cape Province -South Africa

Developing sustainable solutions is critical for adoption of digital solutions. As the high number of learners dropping out of school continues to increase, it is critical to find innovative ways of predicting and preventing high drop out. Current literature has documented a number of factors that influence learner drop out. Innovative ideas, techniques and activities have been undertaken to motivate learners to stay at school. It is unfortunate that most of the initiatives have not helped to avoid drop out of learners. The study is based on a mixed approached that was used targeting female learns from Oliver Tambo District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa which consists of face-to-face engagements and community codesigning approach. A variety of factors were presented as drop out reasons. These factors represent large data sets that are available to affect learners. A big data analytic tool was co-designed involving key stakeholders in education since they also have an influence on learners. Emerging technologies such as machine learning and big data analytics were applied to produce the presented tool

Antecedents of Blackboard Adoption by Lecturers at a South African Higher Education Institution – Extending GETAMEL

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become central to the teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The aim of this paper was to test the constructs of the General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for e-Learning (GETAMEL) and some selected constructs from the other Technology Acceptance Models (TAM) on adoption and use of Black-board LMS by lecturers at a selected university in South Africa. A cross sec-tional electronic survey was carried out to obtain data from 101 lecturers, who were conveniently sampled to express their perceptions on BLMS. Structural equation modelling, utilising SmartPLS3, was used to analyse the collected data. The results confirmed that behavioural intention (BI) influ-enced actual use whilst BI in turn was influenced by perceived usefulness (PU) and subjective norm (SN). Attitude was influenced by PU but had no significant effect on BI. The external factors that influenced perceived ease of use (PEOU) included perceived enjoyment (ENJOY), system self-efficacy (SE), and system anxiety (ANX) whilst PU was influenced by job relevance (JR) and PEOU. University management at the HEI under study should con-sider the determinants of SE, ENJOY and ANX if they need effective utilisation of Blackboard by the lecturers. The study findings imply that a LMS that is adopted and used is one that is considered useful, otherwise users will be reluctant to use it. The findings can assist HEIs in preparing their lecturers before implementation of any e-learning systems, such as training and technical support, thus, enhancing LMS adoption and utilisation. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on antecedents of LMS adoption and use. In addition, it establishes the applicability of GETAMEL in a South African university context