Perceptions of Tertiary Students in Ghana about Effectiveness of Lecturers in Teaching. (A Case Study of Kumasi Polytechnic)

The main objective of the study is to find out the Perception of tertiary students in Ghana about the effectiveness of lecturers in teaching .Questionnaires were used to collect data from six hundred and three (603) HND students of Kumasi Polytechnic. Data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The study reveals two categories of competencies that is personal and professional competencies an effective lecturer should have. On personal competencies it was found out that an effective lecturer is someone who is friendly, patient, pay attention to weak students, dress neatly to lectures, love students, and help students academically. The study also reveal that an effective lecturer is someone who has the following professional competencies, good communication skills, have good knowledge of the subject matter they teach, always punctual to lectures, teach with teaching materials, and motivate students. Recommendations were made to improve on the effectiveness of lecturers teaching in tertiary institutions in Ghana. Keywords: Perception, Effectiveness, Competencies, Professional, Personal, Punctual, Revea

Application of Max-min Ant System in Modelling the Inspectional Tour of Main Sales Points of Ghacem In Ghana.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) has widely been applied to solve combinatorial optimization problems in recent years. There are few studies, however, on its convergence time, which re?ects how many iteration times ACO algorithms spend in converging to the optimal solution. This study aims at using a Max-Min Ant System (MMAS), which belongs to Ants Algorithm to obtain optimal tour of the Travelling Salesman Problem of Ghacem. The study considered a twelve city node graph (major sales point of Ghacem) with the nodes representing the twelve cities, and the edges representing the major roads linking the cities. Secondary data of the inter-city driving distances was obtained from the Ghana Highway Authority. The results showed that the objective of finding the minimum tour from the Symmetric Travelling Salesman Problem (STSP) model by using Max-Min Ants System (MMAS) Algorithm was successfully achieved. The optimal route of total cost distance was found to be 1873Km. Therefore, Ghacem could minimize the cost of transportation  as the  Directors of Ghacem Ghana go on a tour to check on the sales performance  of the twelve key Distributors in the  major sales points in Ghana, starting from Tema where the company’s Head office is sited. It is very prudent for the company to rely on MMAS model to reduce fuel cost in order to maximize profit. In doing so it go along way to increase the tax revenue of the state. Keywords: Max-Min Ants System (MMAS), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Algorithm, Travelling Salesman (TSP), Ghace