An Experimental Research on Accessing and Using Information from Written versus Multimedia Systems

Multimedia technologies are being increasingly used in classrooms. It is expected that 50% of personnel training will be with the use of this medium in the coming millennium. This paper contributes by proposing an experimental research that intends to bring the debate of multimedia in education and training to the forefront. This study will be tested in a laboratory setting during Spring 1999 quarter and the results will be presented at the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)

A Framework for the Design of a Mobile-Based Alert System for Outpatient Adherence in Nigeria

Nigeria ranks among the countries with the highest child and maternal mortality rate. Chronic diseases are the most common contributors to the diseases burden in Nigeria most especially Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS. Adherence to long-term therapy in out-patient condition is required to reduce and curb the prevalence of these diseases. Poor adherence to long-term therapies severely compromises the effectiveness of treatment; making this a critical issue in population health both from the perspective of quality of life and of health economics. This work introduces a m-technology based system that will provide an easy way of complying with drug regimen. It will make use of the Short Messaging Service (SMS) of mobile phones to provide reminders at dosing times. It will design architecture for mobile health interventions and develop a prototype SMS-based system to improve out-patient adherence. This system will be deployed over a period of time at selected hospitals and chronic disease management centers in selected states in Nigeria, and the adherence rates measured via health outcomes and evaluated. This would provide a significant positive return on investment through primary prevention (of risk factors) and secondary prevention of adverse health outcomes. It will also inform predictions of future population health outcomes predicted by treatment efficacy data. Keywords: out-patient, m-technology, adherence, chronic diseases, Nigeria, SM

Identification of Factors that Lead to Perceived Skill Development when Using Multimedia Materials

Considering conflicting research findings on the impact of multimedia on perceived skill development, this research investigates whether intervening variables such as task- technology fit factors might explain the difference in the findings. A pilot study was conducted where 39 students worked on a case study using both paper-based and multimedia based technologies. The findings from the pilot study suggested a strong indirect relationship between multimedia and perceived skill development with learning-driven constructs playing a major role. An exploratory factor analysis design employing a structural equation model will be used to further investigate whether other intervening variables such as the inclusion of an expert choice software, gender, and student major would influence perceived skill development

Editorial: Information Systems Research for Africa: A Renewed Focus

Editorial from the Editors-in-Chief

Editorial: Open Source Software, Cybersecurity and Ebusiness

Editorial for v2 n1

The Unintended Consequences of ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa

Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he\u27s 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck. Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria\u27s largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives. Call him a “Yahoo Yahoo Millionaire. Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.). Akin\u27s main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams. And he\u27s not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a chairman who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin\u27s chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin\u27s pocket. (Quoted from http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic- 37929.0.html)

Effects of User Experience on Identity Authentication in the Nigerian E-banking Environment

A positive user authentication experience in e-banking is becoming increasingly challenging for providers of banking services. Users experience is crucial in justifying moneys spent in technologies. The use of Technology and its acceptance is a field of learning that researchers are working assiduously to discover factors affecting user identity authentication experience in e-banking. The study will investigate the factors affecting user experience in identity authentication in Nigeria e-banking environment using UTAUT model. Statistical methods will be used for analysis. The geographical scope of this work will be restricted to federal capital territory (FCT) in North Central Nigeria. Bank officials and customers will be selected from FCT and samples will be drawn through purposive sampling technique. Findings will disclose factors affecting user authentication experience. Recommendations will be made and the model derived which is UTAUT elements will make contributions extensively to the body of literature

Evaluation of E-Government Implementation: The Case of State Government Websites in Nigeria

This study evaluated the extent to which current status of e-government implementation in Nigeria conforms to the national IT policy strategy. The study is based on content analysis of the official websites of the thirty six states and the federal capital territory of the country. It focuses on the content, functional and construction features of the websites. It was found that, out of the thirty six states, only twenty-three (64 percent) had websites and mostly provide textual information; few provide downloadable digital documents and functional online interactions. We recommend that, in addition to the National IT policy, Nigerian government needs to have an established guideline for its e-government implementation and NITDA needs to be more proactive in its duty of monitoring IT policy implementation. The site designers should acknowledge the importance of government websites as the main channels for information dissemination, for facilitating citizens’ interaction with government and for transforming government operations. Thus, the websites must be more than static notice boards but be function-oriented, dynamic and interactive