E-learning adoption in emerging economy countries: case of Malawi

Abstract

Countries around the world spend considerable amount of money on education to fast track economical and social growth. The introduction of electronic learning (e-Learning) is the latest method that has made significant change in the education sector in such a way that education is no longer focused on teachers but students and teacher’s role has changed from teaching to instructor. Malawi Government is actively participating in the ICT world but her main challenge is the wide gap which is between the urban and rural areas when it comes to education and ICT skills. To eliminate the gap, Malawian Ministry of Education is in the process of promoting e-Learning to complement and supplement face-to-face teaching delivery in universities and later on plans to implement a similar scheme in secondary schools. As a result of the strategies government is planning to implement, the researcher found it necessary to conduct a case study to find best practices which other countries have used to smoothen e-Learning implementation. Republic of Korea and Republic of Kenya were selected as case study countries to learn from. Korea was selected because it’s the leading country in the world on ICT Development Indicators as of 2011 while Kenya is using the same education system as Malawi. Technology Organization Environment (TOE) theoretical framework was used to collect and analyze the secondary data. The results of the study showed that in TOE “organization and environment” contexts are the crucial areas for e-Learning adoption. Taking Malawi case, top management’s leading role and coordination between the players will assist government to implement its projects smoothly. Enabling “policies and regulations” in TOE formulated by top management and continuous funding of the project activities can help sustenance of e-Learning. The study recommends local funding through introduction of ICT funds for continuity. The results of this case study can also be applied to other emerging ec...