Browsing by Author "Wambua, Anthony"

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12
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    Adopting Course Completion Tracking and Conditional Activities to Enhance Engagement in eLearning for University Students
    (IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2021-05) Wambua, Anthony; Maake, Benard
    Student engagement is an overarching problem in the learning context that instructors continue to grapple with. Several attempts that utilize features within the Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have been made to increase student engagement and motivation for online courses. This paper presents the findings of the adoption of completion tracking and conditional activities to enhance engagement in Moodle, a leading LMS. To investigate the effectiveness and the potential of completion tracking and conditional activities in enhancing engagement, data was collected from 90 students across four courses, further Moodle logs were examined. The research findings indicate completion tracking and conditional activities significantly increase learner engagement in online classes. These findings have significant implications on instructors conducting online classes and the development of student engagement for online courses. The present research fulfills the need to study how completion tracking and conditional activities features can be used to enhance learner engagement in Moodle LMS.
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    Characterizing Software Quality Assurance Practices in Kenya
    (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING & COMPUTER SYSTEMS, 2022) Wambua, Anthony ; Maake, Benard
    Given the increased reliance on technology, Software Quality Assurance(SQA) has become a vital area in Software Engineering (SE). SQA practices require training, cost and often take more time than actual code writing. Owing to these requirements, software developers often ignore or partly implement SQA practices, leading to potentially poor quality software development. The goal of the study is to characterise SQA practices of software developers in Kenya. As such, quantitative empirical research was conducted. Seventy-seven (N=77) completed questionnaires were received and analysed to yield the required insights. The analysis of the findings indicates compliance with SQA practices. However, the research unearths concerns such as failure to comply with Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) models as having the potential to lower the quality of software products. The assessment found that Unit testing was the most common type of software test. Based on the findings and literature, recommendations are made. The need to improve software engineering education and invest in software testing is underscored. The results can be generalised to most developing countries and used by software developers and trainers to identify areas in SQA that need strengthening
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    A Comparative Analysis of Bat and Genetic Algorithms for Test Case Prioritization in Regression Testing
    (I.J. Intelligent Systems and Applications, 2023-02) Wambua, Anthony; Wambugu, Geoffrey Mariga
    Regression testing is carried out to ensure that software modifications do not introduce new potential bugs to the existing software. Existing test cases are applied in the testing, such test cases can run into thousands, and there is not much time to execute all of them. Test Case Prioritization (TCP) is a technique to order test cases so that the test cases potentially revealing more faults are performed first. With TCP being deemed an optimization problem, several metaheuristic nature-inspired algorithms such as Bat, Genetic, Ant colony, and Firefly algorithms have been proposed for TCP. These algorithms have been compared theoretically or based on a single metric. This study employed an experimental design to offer an in-depth comparison of bat and genetic algorithms for TCP. Unprioritized test cases and a brute-force approach were used for comparison. Average Percentage Fault Detection (APFD)- a popular metric, execution time and memory usage were used to evaluate the algorithms’ performance. The study underscored the importance of test case prioritization and established the superiority of the Genetic algorithm over the bat algorithm for TCP in APFD. No stark differences were recorded regarding memory usage and execution time for the two algorithms. Both algorithms seemed to scale well with the growth of test cases.
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    Effectiveness of eLearning During the Lockdown Period- Kenya Case Study
    (CEDRED Publications, 2020) Gitonga, Myra O.; Wambua, Anthony
    eLearning can be defined as learning conducted via electronic media, or technology assisted learning typically over the Internet. It is an area that came into existence more than a decade ago and has then evolved slowly being introduced as part of technology assisted learning, especially in Kenya. First it has been integrated into a blended learning as both learners and teachers ensure pedagogy and proper use of tools. However, with the present pandemic of COVID-19, countries have been forced to close institutions of learning indefinitely. Education has a direct impact on sustainable development therefore learning needs to go on. So, it is on this basis that various learning tools have quickly been adapted with speed so that learning may progress. In Kenya, different university lecturers adopted several eLearning tools informally or formally. This paper investigates tools that are being used during this difficult period. Further, the effectiveness of the tools as far as the learners and field of study is concerned is investigated. Another objective was to find out the extent to which mobility devices were used for eLearning. Effectiveness is assessed using factors such as the satisfaction of the students in relation to the achievement of their learning objective is assessed. In addition, as this research seek to finds out eLearning tools that were applied it will relate effectiveness to how favorable the learner’s environment and infrastructure supported their application. Primary data was collected using online questionnaires to the learners and teachers using an online research tool. The scope covered a study of science and computing students in a private institution of higher learning in Kenya. A total of 48 students from the faculty of science of a private university participated in the research. The analysis of the effectiveness of eLearning
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    ELearning Assessments, Issues, Mitigation Strategies, and the Future
    (IGI Global, 2022-06) Wambua, Anthony
    ELearning continues to offer the promise of revolutionizing education. Lower cost of education, learning anywhere, and personalized learning are just a few benefits of eLearning. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the need for technology-mediated learning. eLearning assessments continue to be an open challenge in the context of eLearning. Both novice and experienced teachers grapple with assessing learners in online classes. Issues such as the nature of assessments, exam integrity, use of appropriate assessment tools are now getting increased attention from researchers. Existing research in eLearning tends to focus on the technology, its adoption, and factors affecting its success or lack of it. A paucity of research on e-assessments leads to limited insights for teachers and institutions. Consequently, this chapter focuses on e-assessments, given the critical role of assessment in any form of learning.
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    The Role of Educational Technology and Elearning During Covid-19 Pandemic and its Impact on the Higher Education Sector in Kenya
    (Lexington Books, MD, 2022) Ayiro, Laban Peter; Munyao, Martin; Wambua, Anthony
    Online Learning, Instruction, and Research in Post-Pandemic Higher Education in Africa, edited by Martin Munyao, argues that beyond survival, universities need to adapt to technology-mediated communication learning in order to thrive. Disruptive technologies have recently proved to be means of thriving for institutions of higher learning. This book reflects on how leveraging on education technology has transformed teaching, learning, and research Higher Education Institutions (HEI) impacting Africa through digital transformation. In particular, HEIs are collaborating more now than ever before. Finally, this book addresses the challenges of teaching STEM programs online in Africa.
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    Role of Mobile Applications in Mitigating Challenges Faced by Informal Saving Groups
    (IST-Africa 2020 Conference Proceedings, 2020) Wambua, Anthony; Wamuyu, Patrick Kanyi
    Existing literature shows that even though governments in developing countries have continued in their efforts with reforms and other actions to expand financial access and inclusion among citizens, a segment of the population remains excluded. This comprises of low income and middle-class people who end up relying on informal saving groups for their financial needs. Despite their prevalence and importance, the informal saving groups such as Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and Accumulating Savings and Credit Association (ASCAs) continue to face a myriad of challenges with many of them collapsing. The aim of this study is to explore the usage of mobile apps to overcome the challenges faced by the ROSCAs and ASCAs. Agile software methodology was used to develop a robust mobile application for use by informal saving groups. Adoption of mobile apps technologies is important to the informal financial sector and the formal financial sector that is linked to these informal saving groups such as banks and microfinance institutions. The study reveals that the use of mobile apps was a plausible solution to the challenges experienced by the members of the informal savings groups while handling monetary transactions.
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    Security-aware Mobile Application Development Lifecycle (sMADLC)
    (I. J. Education and Management Engineering, 2023-04) Wambua, Anthony; Kamau, Gabriel Ndung’u
    With the high mobile phone penetration and subsequent significant usage of mobile phone applications, mobile users have become prime targets of hackers. Secure Software Development (SSD) advocates incorporating security aspects at the initial stages of software development. This study proposes a novel Mobile Application Development Lifecycle by reviewing SSD concepts and incorporating these concepts into MADLC- a mobile-focused software development lifecycle to create a security-aware Mobile Application Development Lifecycle (sMADLC). The proposed development lifecycle, sMADLC, can potentially help mobile application developers create secure software that can withstand hacker aggression and assure mobile application users of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their data and systems.
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    The Role of Emerging Disruptive Education Technologies in Optimizing Learning Outcomes
    (Daystar University, Higher Education Learning Technologies International Conference, 2024) Tuikong, Sylvia; Wambua, Anthony
    The study investigated the perspectives of students and faculty concerning the influence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the learning process. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio among others. In a time of rapid technological development, it is essential to comprehend how important stakeholders perceive generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to best integrate technology into education in the era of eLearning
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    Using Moodle’s interactive tools in Problem Based Learning to enhance collaborative learning: An explanatory sequential mixed methods research study
    (Daystar University, Higher Education eLearning Technologies International Conference, 2024) Munyao, Martin; Maurice, Peter Mutua; Wambua, Anthony
    The high usage of Discussion Forum is great as it promote collaboration and enhance PBL pedagogy. High usage of the Assignment tool – unless group assignments, should be checked. Tools like Workshop can greatly enhance collaboration and PBL yet rarely used. Rethinking Moodle tools usage in the context of PBL and student-led learning approached is paramount
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    Water Quality Monitoring Using IoT & Machine Learning
    (ST-Africa.org/Conference2022, 2022) Omambia, Andrew; Maake, Benard; Wambua, Anthony
    Abstract: Safe water access is fundamental form of human survival and it is presented as a fundamental human right. As consumers use water, primarily sourced from pipes and springs located around towns, contamination, leakages, and pilferage happen. IoT and Machine Learning offer a promising solution to address these challenges. Premised on these technologies, the authors propose a system that monitors water quality and pilferage and wastage that uses machine learning algorithms for decision making
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    What Do Flutter Developers Ask About? An Empirical Study on Stack Overflow Posts
    (Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development, 2024) Wambua, Anthony
    Abstract Since Google launched Flutter, an open-source framework, in 2017, many companies and software developers have turned to its use owing to its cross-platform feature. Other attractive features include hot reloading, a rich widget library, and improved performance compared to other cross-platform frameworks. Despite the rise in the use and adoption of the framework, little has been done to understand developers’ challenges. This study aims to understand what Flutter developers post on Stack Overflow – a popular Q&A website for developers. Analyzing such posts would help us understand the challenges faced by Flutter developers. To meet this goal, the study used a topic modeling approach to analyze all “flutter” tagged posts between 2019 and 2023. This study revealed state management, widgets, navigation, packages, and persistence as some areas developers face challenges. Further, the study established that there is a growth in the number of Flutter-related posts and developers. While the Flutter framework is promising for companies and software developers, this study points out areas where Flutter trainers and developers should emphasize. Flutter Framework developers should provide more documentation and support as the language matures