University of Zambia Online Research Repository
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The effectiveness of Moodle in promoting online learning in tertiary public institutions: the case of the University of Zambia.
Get PDFThesisElectronic learning has over the years transitioned from targeting only the working class and secondary school leavers who could not go to the university because of the distance and lack of places. The introduction of e-learning platforms is bridging the gap in the provision of education. The background of the research shows that e-learning was introduced to promote distance education through online learning. In addition, e-learning has the ability to reduce the cost of education. The general objective of this research is to examine the effectiveness of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment in promoting online learning at the University of Zambia. Specifically, the research aims at examining the extent to which MOODLE has promoted education at the University of Zambia and to examine the extent to which MOODLE has reduced the cost of accessing education compared to the traditional method at the University of Zambia.
This was an explanatory research and was a one-time case study. It made use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis, respectively. The sample size was 104 comprising 60 students, 40 lecturers and four key informant, one from each of the four schools namely; school of Mines, school of Engineering, school of Veterinary Medicine
and school of Agricultural Sciences. The four key informants were purposively selected while simple random sampling which combined lottery method and systematic sampling was used to select the lecturers and students. The findings
shows that MOODLE is very effective in enhancing distance education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because most of the lecturers and students are able to use it. This is achieved through measurers put in place by the university management such as the creation of an online platform which allows lecturers to perform their work and training of lecturers on the use of MOODLE.
Although management created online courses to enhance distance education, not all lecturers are able to deliver all courses online and not all students’ accesses lectures on the online platform due to various challenges. Furthermore, MOODLE is not very effective in reducing in cost of accessing university education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because there are some areas where students still incur costs to access education despite using MOODLE. These areas are accommodation, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accommodation when using MOODLE while 73.3% of the students did not. Transportation, where 46.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of transportation when using MOODLE while the majority being 53.3% did not. Accessing lectures, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accessing lectures after the introduction of MOODLE while 73.3% did not
Challenges faced In water infrastructure projects implemented by the Zambian government.
Get PDFMaster of Engineering in Project ManagementThe Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has been undertaking water infrastructure development projects and programs at various levels in both rural and urban areas through the Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation (MWDS) and other line ministries. The implementation of these projects by the Zambian government has come with many challenges, which has led to the non-completion of some projects. In the past 10 years, a number of these projects have been abandoned at various stages of completion. However, no study has been conducted to investigate the cause of this. This study was undertaken to identify challenges that contribute to failures in fully implementing water projects implemented by the Zambian government. The general objective of this study was to establish challenges faced in implementing water infrastructure development projects by the Zambian government. The study was carried out by interviewing different officers from government and donor agencies involved in the water infrastructure projects at different stages, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and consultants, literature review of the various books and reports and also observation of selected water infrastructure projects. The results indicated that the major challenges of implementation were in the formation and operation of Project Management Teams, lack of financial resources and lengthy procurement process. It was therefore recommended that the Project Management Team should have fully dedicated team members to work solely on the project and must have no government interference, also government should completely fulfil its financial obligations to the projects and the procurement process to be revised to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Keywords: Water infrastructure projects, project management team, government, challenges, implementation
Modelling and simulation of combustion of Bio-derived fuels in a PT6A-27 turboprop engine.
Get PDFThesisThe motivation for venturing in alternative jet fuels has partly been due to the elevated level and
volatility of the price of Jet A (a kerosene-based aviation gas turbine fuel) and environmental
impacts on global climate change and air quality.
The model of the annular combustor for the PT6A-27 engine was created using SOLIDWORKS
and exported to ANSYS DESIGN MODELER for further conversion from a solid geometry into
a fluid-based model. Creation of the computational mesh for the geometry using ANSYS
MESHING was done in preparation for the setting up of the CFD simulation in ANSYS FLUENT.
The simulation also included, setting material properties and boundary conditions for a non premixed combustion problem, initiating the calculation with residual plotting, calculating the
solution using the pressure-based solver and visually examining the flow and temperature fields
using the post-processing in ANSYS FLUENT.
In the non-premixed combustion, the Standard k-ε 2 equation turbulence model was used.
The fuel blend from the range of 30% bioethanol and 70% biodiesel (BE30-BD70) to 70%
bioethanol and 30% biodiesel (BE70-BD30) indicated a combustion characteristic consistency
with that obtained from the combustion of Jet-A1. Further, from the comparisons of the blends in
terms of performance and single biofuel combustion simulation the best blend combination was
40% bioethanol with 60% biodiesel (BE40-BD60) whose adiabatic flame temperature was about
2260 Kelvins. The single biofuel combustion simulation best pick was 100% biodiesel whose
adiabatic flame temperature was about 2310 Kelvins.
The blend of 40% bioethanol to 60% biodiesel was observed to have a reduced Fuel NOx footprint.
However, the rise in the calorific energy content of the fuel blend due to the presence of biodiesel
in the mixture contributed to the increase in Thermal NOx production, albeit still less than that
obtained from a pure hydrocarbon fuel of JetA-1. A pure JetA-1 hydrocarbon fuel had a production
rate of Thermal NOx ranging from 0.002699526 Kgmol/m3
s to 0.002705489 Kgmol/m3
s.
The Prompt NOx rate for Jet fuel was observed to be 1.789729 × 10−6Kgmol/m3
s . On the
selected fuel blend of biofuels at the proportions of 40% bioethanol and 60% biodiesel, the
observed production rate values of Thermal NOx and Prompt NOx were a range of
4.798448 × 10−6Kgmol/m3
s to 5.01322 × 10−6Kgmol/m3
s and 2.054488 × 10−7Kgmol/
m3
s respectively. This was indicative of a reduction in both Thermal and Prompt NOx when the
two groups of fuels (Jet-A against 40BE & 60BD blend) were compared.
These results showed that reduction of NOx emissions is achievable for a blend of 40% bioethanol
and 60% biodiesel in a combustion reaction as a substitute for the hydrocarbon JetA in the PT6A 27 turboprop engin
Social determinants of caesarean section among child bearing women in Zambia.
Get PDFThesis of Master of Public Health.This study determined social determinants of Caesarean Section among child bearing women in Zambia. The study used a quantitative research paradigm and followed a stratified two-stage sample design. A cross-sectional study design was used. The study was guided by the following research questions. a) What socio-demographic factors are associated with Caesarean Section among child bearing women In Zambia? b) Which socio-economic factors are associated with Caesarean Section among child bearing women in Zambia? Study findings revealed that level of education, wealth index, place of delivery, type of place of residence and birth order were major determinants of Caesarean Section. The socio- demographic factor associated with Caesarean Section among child bearing women in Zambia was birth order. The findings revealed that the percentage of women undergoing Caesarean Section decreases from the 1st to the 5th birth order. In addition, level of education, wealth index, place of delivery and type of place of residence were identified as socio-economic factors associated with Caesarean Section among child bearing women in Zambia. The study recommends that: i) In line with government policy on maternal interventions, the practice of Trial of Labour (TOLAC) for women with a history of Caesarean Section should be considered. ii) Increasing women’s access to non-medical interventions during labour such as continuous support during labour and External Cephalic Version (ECV) is vital.
iii) Further, there is need for the Ministry of Health to strengthen adherence of healthcare professionals to clinical practice guidelines combined with audit and feedback
Facilitators and barriers to mental health seeking intentions among students at Mulungushi university-Kabwe district.
Get PDFThesis of Master of Science in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing at the University of Zambia.Background: Mental disorders are common among university students, however most students are reluctant to use available mental health services such as student counselling services. Substantial amount of literature suggest that delayed treatment negatively impacts academic performance and life in general. At Mulungushi University 17 cases of mental disorders were recorded among students in the past five years and the proportion of students seeking counselling dropped to 6.8% in 2018 and 5.4% in 2020.Further, one student dropped out of school due to a mental disorder. This study aimed at determining the mental health seeking intentions, facilitators and barriers to mental health seeking intentions among students at Mulungushi University.
Methodology: An analytical cross sectional quantitative design was used with the help of a self-administered questionnaire adapted from 5 validated tools namely; General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ), Mental Health Knowledge Schedule(MHKS), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support(MSPSS), Perception of stigmatization of others for seeking help scale (PSOSH) and Barriers to Access Care Evaluation (BACE-3). 137 Nursing and Pharmacy students were randomly selected after meeting the inclusion criteria. Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from the respondents. Data was analysed using version 23 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Chi Square tests were used to determine the association between variables and Binary Logistic Regression Analysis was used to identify predictors of mental health seeking intentions.
Results: The results of the study showed that mental health seeking intentions were weak, 69% of students indicated that they were unlikely to seek help. Further, university sources of help were the least preferred by students, 60 % of students indicated that they were unlikely to seek help from university-based sources. The study also showed that stigma was associated with poor mental health seeking intentions (OR=3.190, CI=0.8-11.339, P=0.041), students who were perceiving stigma were 3.19 times less likely to seek help than those who were not perceiving stigma. Although barriers to care showed no significant effect at a 5% level of significance, the odds showed that those who were perceiving barriers to access care were 1.41 less likely to seek help compared to those who were not perceiving barriers to access care. (OR=1.418, CI=0.623-3.230, P=0.404). The study also revealed that there was an association between gender and mental health seeking intentions. (OR=0.90, CI=0.3826-2.137, P=0.003), females showed stronger intentions to seek help seeking than males. The examined facilitators were social support and mental health literacy and no significant relationships were observed between mental health literacy, social support and mental health seeking intentions.
Conclusion; Based on these findings, the study recommends that efforts should be channelled towards overcoming stigma and site-specific barriers to access care which are contributing to poor mental health seeking intentions among students. Further, special consideration must be placed on males through these interventions since they showed lower health seeking intentions than females
Uncovering administration challenges faced by female social sciences heads of department in selected secondary schools of Lusaka urban district in Zambia.
Get PDFArticleManaging a school department should be tilted towards achieving set goals and creating value for the education system. Generally, there seems to poor performance in social sciences departments that are headed by females when compared to other units within schools [1]. This inefficiency at departmental levels appears to have negative impact on the overall performance of schools. Therefore, the aim of this study is to unearth issues related to management of social sciences departments by female heads in some secondary schools in Zambia. The study followed a descriptive research design to generate evidence on experiences of female headed social sciences departments in some secondary schools. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews from a total sample of 25 participants. The data was analysed using a thematic approach with elements of comparative analysis [2]. The findings show that subject loads, constrained resources especially teaching aids, managing high numbers of staff in the departments as well as teacher absenteeism were main challenges faced. It was also found that the high rate of permission seeking behaviours to stay away from work by some teachers compromised teaching thereby testing the leadership of these female heads. Additionally, the limited office space or lack of adequate infrastructure for operations such lesson plan preparations hampered effective management of social science department. Therefore, the study concluded that challenges experienced by female social sciences heads of department are both structural and material. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should increase funding in social sciences departments as they represent the largest in schools and there is need for school administrators to organize and offer periodic training to the Heads of the departments on their roles so that they are always acquitted with new changes in the school system
