MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2011)

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http://hdl.handle.net/11071/1447

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Browsing MSIT Theses and Dissertations (2011) by Subject "Kenya"

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    Cost Effective News Gathering Technique in Kenya Using Terrestrial Broadband IP Links
    (2013-11-18) Njoroge, Benson W.; Sevilla, Joseph; Marwanga (Dr.), Reuben; Kiraka, Ruth
    This study aims to understand the methodologies and challenges of the current news gathering techniques used by broadcasters in Kenya and provide guidelines and methodology for development of an economical and cost-effective alternative technique. The research adopts both an analytic and applied approach. The analytic approach aims to review and analyze the existing methodologies and techniques and the challenges associated with them. The Applied approach aims to provide a guideline and methodology for a cost-effective alternative technique using locally available computer hardware (Video input and output cards), software (MPEG4 encoders and decoders) running over terrestrial broadband IP Links. The findings indicate that majority of the broadcasters in Kenya use the traditional satellite based news gathering technique (Digital Satellite News Gathering) which exhibit expensive and proprietary hardware systems and software. These techniques are always constrained by resources such as satellite bandwidth, hardware equipments and qualified manpower. The designed cost-effective alternative technique delivers the same video quality with significantly low capital expenditure and operation costs. The cost effective technique provides good foundation for future research and development of low cost commercial news gathering systems that run on broadband IP links. Additional research and experiments are recommended for development of similar but robust, versatile and automated systems that have the encoding software embedded in the operating systems code (such as Linux and UNIX) in a scenario where the encoder and decoder computers powers on without I/O devices and starts the services at boot time. The developed technique provide the broadcasters in Kenya and other developing countries with a cheaper alternative news gathering systems that can be used where reliable and fast terrestrial fibre, microwave, WiMax , 3 G or 4G links exists. For guaranteed service, the broadcasters should ensure they use robust computers suitable for outdoor use and the bandwidth available on the terrestrial links is over 2 Mbps for video and 128 Kbps for audio. This study shows that for the fist time, the terrestrial IP broadband networks in the region can be used for news gathering services by broadcasters using low cost equipments. The economic sense of using computers shows the news gathering service can be available to broadcasters regardless of cost and resource constraints.
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    Creating business value with Information Technology in tourism sector
    (2013-11-14) Mwangi, Gachonde O.
    Information Technology deployments and automation in organizations are often associated with many factors in consideration in order to determine whether they will assist the organization realize business value. Especially, tourism players in Kenya have not fully benefited from the value created by deploying Information Technology in the organization. The purpose of this research is to determine which organizational processes and procedures are candidates for automation in order to achieve business value in an organization. A concept to support the research will be derived from these processes and procedures which will form a framework that can be applied across the organization to achieve business value.This research addresses a perpetual problem that faces organizations in tourism of how to improve business value created by Information Technology. The research examines the current organizational workflow of the processes and procedures for various organizations in an approach that clearly shows the inefficiencies created. The objectives are to assist tour operators in Kenya to achieve business value created by the implementation of IT both to the organization and to contribute to the development of frameworks in academic research targeting IT business value. In management, business value is the intangible value in a business, above the value of its tangible assets. This research conducted a workflow examination on various organizations in the tourism sector, and the findings/results have revealed that majority of the manual processes in the organization can be automated to achieve the objectives of this research. An IT framework/model is proposed to aid the translation of these processes into business value namely improved tum-around time, availability of accurate and useful information, effective utilization of organizational resources, efficient organizational processes, improved performance and being competitive. The proposed framework/model in this research combines these model components in an input output procedure ensuring all aspects of the organization have been considered in order to achieve IT business value as the result. The model details the main components, sub-components, effects of presence, absence, outputs and measurement metrics that determines the overall effect of achieving IT business value if an organization adopts the model.
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    Development of a collaborative learning system in low resource environments in Kenya
    (2013-11-14) Kinyanjui, Njoroge T.
    The fields of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are full of open source and commercial products including Blackboard, WEB CT, and Moodle, These systems are tutor-oriented, not designed to facilitate personalized learning support for an individual learner. Teachers and students, frustrated with current LMS, need a new, innovative, user-friendly alternative to encourage and empower students to take control of their education, and teachers to explore new styles of teaching, depending on their students' needs. Most of the students in the developing world suffer from limited English proficiency, in addition to limited computer skills and IT-resources access. These obstacles compose a barrier to, and impose limitations on the design and implementation of E-learning systems. The main aim of this study was to develop a collaborative learning system that can be used in low resource environment in Kenya. From the existing literature there is lack of a collaborative learning system in these environments, study was done through questionnaires, interviews and observation to establish the requirements of a collaborative learning system,based on this, a prototype for a simple,learner-oriented collaborative learning system was developed to facilitate the learning process to both the teachers and student. The proposed system enables the student (even with moderate English level and general IT knowledge) to navigate through the system, and collaborate through simple tools such as group chat, post and access forums, manage individual profile, post comments to the teachers, access video and audio contents as well as communicate with fellow students among other provided tools. The proposed prototype was made available to the students and teachers to examine and evaluate. feedback was analyzed and an enhancement was done on the prototype to meet the specific users' requirements. From the research it showed that there is a high need to implement the collaboration between teachers and the students, in analyzing collaborative learning on the web, its clear that we need to learn and understand more about how the learner interacts with the media and how the web affects the learner and learning outcomes. The learners and desired learning outcomes should be the ultimate focus of developing successful collaborative learning on the web.
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    An exploratory study on the usage of M-payments by small and medium business enterprises in Kenya
    (Strathmore University, 2011-09) Kimathi, Vella G. N; Lukandu, Ismail Ateya; Marwanga (Dr.), Reuben; Kiraka, Ruth
    The aim of this study was to identify the key aspects of the currently available m-Commerce systems, and, in particular, identify what the drivers were for a successful implementation. The study was to look at the technology, market & competition, regulatory and network load issues with a view to explore on the usage of m-payments by small and medium business enterprises in Kenya. This study has necessarily taken a high-level look at the emerging second hand clothing industry imitumba businesses) and in the process has identified the difficult issues that will impact the success of new implementations, such as m-commerce, in the African market(s). The rapid spread of mobile phones means that the number of mobile users may exceed the number of banked people in many low income countries. Mobile phones can also offer a communications channel for initiating and executing on-line financial transactions. This channel may not only reduce the cost of financial transactions for provider and customer, but also allow new entrants to the financial sector, and new relationships to be formed for distributing services. These changes hold the prospect of accelerating access to financial services on the back of the mobile infrastructure. This research investigates the extent to which the expansion of mobile telephony is likely to lead to the expansion of access to appropriate financial services in developing countries, especially Africa. The objectives of this study are to determine how the current m-payment habits are being perceived by entrepreneurs in Kenya, to establish whether reaching the small and medium business entrepreneurs through m-payments will be the ultimate driver towards an entrepreneurship boom in Kenya and to determine which business model can support m-payments for online transactions. The researcher of this paper acquired data for analysis in order to, firstly, find out how the current m-payments habits are being perceived by entrepreneurs in Kenya. Therefore, she conducted a survey through questionnaires to evaluate feasibility of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) population doing transactions through m-payments. The study discovered that small businesses are using money transfer systems for transactions, and this has lead to the rapid growth of establishments and low cost of operations for small businesses. It was concluded that the usage of mobile payment systems shall lead to an explosion of small business set-ups in Kenya and Africa at large.