14–18 Mar 2016
Hotel Novotel
Africa/Dakar timezone
Enabling Virtual Research and Education Communities

E-Readiness Survey: Know Your Customer – Plan the Future

18 Mar 2016, 11:50
20m
Saly 1 (Hotel Novotel)

Saly 1

Hotel Novotel

Avenue Abdoulaye Fadiga, Dakar 18524, Senegal
Shared Experiences, Best Practices and Collaboration PLENARY SESSION V – Paper Presentations

Speaker

Mr Stephan Mgaya (TERNET)

Description

This e-readiness Survey is conducted by Tanzania Education and Research Network (TERNET) among Tanzanian higher learning institutions to establish the preparedness of those institutions in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The survey focuses in achieving the actual capability of each and every individual institutions readiness in the use ICT in education. The E-readiness survey is being carried out among 60 institution in Tanzania. It was scheduled for three months between October to December 2014, hence, it is in its final stages. The survey is grouped into four categories related to network access, networked learning, networked society, and policy. The categories were further broken down into nine indicators: communication infrastructures, Internet availability, Internet affordability, network speed, enhancing education with ICT, developing the ICT workforce, people and organizations online, locally relevant contents, and ICT in everyday life. Through the collected data, we observe that
  1. Institutions outside the Dar Es Salaam city has major challenges in terms of Internet availability, affordability and speed.
  2. Most of smaller institutions or campuses outside Dar Es Salaam have budgetary challenges as well lack of qualified ICT technical staff.
  3. ICT policy and strategic plan is missing in most institutions
**INTRODUCTION**: Tanzania Education and Research Network (TERNET) is a network for Tanzanian higher learning and research institutions aiming at providing platform for enabling the sharing of education and research resources. TERNET as an organization decided to conduct an e-readiness survey aiming at establishing ICT status for each member institution in the country. e-readiness is defined by the Center for International Development at Harvard University) as “the degree to which a community is prepared to participate in the Networked World. It is gauged by assessing a community’s relative advancement in the areas that are most critical for ICT adoption and the most important applications of ICTs. When considered together in the context of a strategic planning dialogue, an assessment based on these elements provides a robust portrayal of a community’s Readiness. The value to a community of assessing its Readiness lies in evaluating its unique opportunities and challenges.” The findings in this study are expected to guide TERNET to better serve her members; knowing the status on the ground will provide opportunity to provide strategic solutions. This E-readiness survey is sponsored by International Network for the Availability of scientific Publications (INASP) to be performed in three months from October to December 2014. **METHODOLOGY** The survey is carried out using a questionnaire which is designed in three sections related to:
  1. Establishing awareness – questions leading to understanding how much the institutions know about TERNET.
  2. Management part – collecting information about the institutions (CEO, IT Manager, Finance, contact person, etc)
  3. Technical part – this relates to the four categories and the various groups.
TERNET staff visits each institution, have a general discussion with the top management, later have a one to one discussion with the technical staff to complete the questionnaire. Few institutions have requested that us to leave the questionnaire to be filled in later. **CONCLUSION**: TERNET has started a service her members known as “Direct Engineering Assistant (DEA)” where we do help member institutions to restructure their networks. The e-readiness Survey helps TERNET to determine which institutions require a quick DEA support. The results will help TERNET or any other NREN to strategically plan and deliver and deliver solutions which are relevant to the intended communities.

Primary author

Dr Amos Nungu (TERNET)

Co-author

Mr Damas Makweba (TERNET)

Presentation materials