FACTORS INFLUENCING LECTURERS AND STUDENTS’ UTILIZATIONOF E-LEARNING RESOURCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICABARATON, KENYA: TOWARDS IMPROVEMENT OF THE INNOVATION

Abstract

In Kenya and across the world, Universities partnered with technology companies to invest in
innovations, which sustained the teaching and learning processes during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Such innovations, which at first appeared to be disruptive, have now been adopted and are likely
to sustain the universities in case there would be another pandemic. The researchers are of the
opinion that the Covid 19 instigated short-term innovations such as eLearning platforms will lead
to long-term innovations as universities continue to leverage in the post Covid-19 lock down
period. However, research reveals that as universities invest more in the Learning Management
Systems, their utilization by faculty and students is poor. This study explored the faculty and
students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and challenges in the utilization of the eLearning platform at
the university of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya. Community of inquiry and TPACK frameworks
informed the study. Descriptive, correlational and comparative design approaches and a sample of
203 eLearning platform users were used in the study. Means, standard deviations, t-test, ANOVA,
Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were employed. The findings revealed that there
is a significant difference between the faculty and students in utilization of eLearning resources
(p=0.010). Age also significantly influenced utilization of eLearning resources and activities (p=
0.036) with those between 26-36 years showing higher utilization. Utilization of eLearning
resources also had a strong, positive and significant correlation with skills (r=0.885) and
knowledge (r=0.880). Skills was the best predictor of utilization of eLearning resources (p=0.000).
The greatest challenge in utilization of eLearning was infrastructure (p=0.000). The study therefore
recommends faculty and students skill improvement on eLearning resources, specifically for those
aged over 36 years. In addition, more focus should be on investing more on the infrastructure that
supports the eLearning platform of the University