E- Content delivery platform for university students

Abstract

The recent growth in the telecommunications field has experienced an exponential increase in network coverage, speed, and technological innovation in Kenya. The growth has also led to increased use of Information Communication Technology in education. The demand for higher education has escalated and many institutions are turning to eLearning to expand their presence online. The demand for local educational content is also increasing with the growth of eLearning in Kenya.There is therefore a need to build capacity for the development and distribution of local e-content.There is need for a platform that enables easy exchange of educational content in Kenya and especially one that incorporates mobile payments systems that are commonly available. Authors of educational content need a way of sharing their content with students for free or at a fee. The purpose of this research was to find out the relevant information and structure that would be suitable in an e-content distribution platform. The researcher studied the current e-content platforms in use by university students by sampling students in five universities.The research was done through interviews and questionnaires. The analysis of the feedback revealed that in as much as most institutions have e-learning platforms, the acquisition and the distribution of e-content was still not as easy. However the study revealed that most of the students were open to the idea of paying for content from a commercial platform.The results of the study were the design and implementation of a content delivery framework that enabled easy exchange of educational content between authors of such content and students. To achieve this a mobile-web based platform which uses DRM to protect downloaded material was developed, which enables authors to upload their materials easily and students to download the material easily thus bridging the gap between availability of e-content and accessibility of e-content for learning purposes.