This short chapter is the introduction to all the chapters in the e-University Compendium. Key sections include an overview of the theory of virtual universities and e-universities and a “helicopter view” (or World Tour) of the world of e-universities, followed by a thematic approach to the material. The final key section gives an overview of the everlastingly popular topic of Critical Success Factors for e-universities and foreshadows the benchmarking e-learning work in the 2004-12 era. The chapter is based on work that the author carried out over the 2000–01 period , but reaches back to work at the Open University from 1995 and in fact lays the foundation for a whole range of studies to date including Re.ViCa, VISCED, POERUP, SharedOER, ADOERUP and a growing body of market research. competitor research and country report work for commercial, university and (inter)governmental clients.

The adoption of IFRS around the world is occurring rapidly to bring about accounting quality improvement through a uniform set of standards for financial reporting. But recent accounting literature provides the evidence that at least part of the observed quality improvements around voluntary adoption is driven by the changing incentives rather than the standards per se. This article is an effort to review the research on the consequences of changing accounting standards and to portray the determinants financial reporting outcomes following IFRS adoption. We argued that, financial reporting outcomes depends on a variety of factors that influence those outcomes and accounting quality does not depend only on accounting standards but also on the firm’s overall institutional setting, including the legal and political system of the country in which the firm resides. Thus other factors like incentives, enforcement mechanism, ownership structure, capital structure, market and legal forces and cost benefit trade off deserves equal importance as adoption of IFRS. IFRS has an effect on accounting quality but adoption of IFRS is actually a manifestation of other underlying factors. We also highlighted the issues that are hindering contribution of IFRS adoption as a determinant of financial reporting outcomes in Bangladesh.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the influencing factors of asynchronous elearning system quality particular in developing countries via a review of current literature and a qualitative pre-study conducted at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). Despite the perceived benefits of these systems to overcome challenges facing education sector in the region, studies show that the majority of them have not been successful. After a thorough review of existing literature on developing countries and a qualitative pre-study conducted at JKUAT University, the study identified the factors that influence quality of e-learning systems as: Course Design, Content support, social support, and Student Characteristics, Instructor Characteristics, Technician Characteristics, Course Assessment and Institutional factors. It is hoped that the findings of this study will help those who are involved in the implementation of Learning Management System (LMS) assisted Asynchronous e-learning in developing countries prepare corrective measures and strategies based on these factors to avoid future system failures.

There is a substantial increase in the use of learning management systems (LMSs) to support e-learning in higher education institutions, particularly in developing countries. This has been done with some measures of success and failure as well. There is evidence from literature that the provision of e-learning faces several quality issues relating to course design, content support, social support, administrative support, course assessment, learner characteristics, instructor characteristics, and institutional factors. It is clear that developing countries still remain behind in the great revolution of e-learning in Higher Education. Accordingly, further investigation into e-learning use in Kenya is required in order to fill in this gap of research, and extend the body of existing literature by highlighting major quality determinants in the application of e-learning for teaching and learning in developing countries. By using a case study of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the study establishes the status of e-learning system quality in Kenya based on these determinants and then concludes with a discussion and recommendation of the constructs and indicators that are required to support qualify teaching and learning practices

Small-scale cereal farmers dominate agricultural activities in developing countries. These agricultural activities are characterized by low productivity due to lack of agricultural input information. This lack is restrained by the low use of ICTs caused by some factors such as the farmers’ perception of ICTs and the ICTs’ delivered information quality. We investigated these factors and their effects on ICTs’ use by small-scale cereal farmers in developing countries. Sikasso region in Mali was selected as a case. A convenient sample size of 300 cereal farmers was selected. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling technique was used to analyse the data. The results suggested that the perception i.e. relative advantage, compatibility and simplicity and the delivered information quality were able to explain 77.9% of the variance in the Use of ICTs to access and use agricultural input information. From these results, it is important to take the Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Simplicity and Information Quality as the main factors determining the use of ICTs in developing countries in the cereal production context. A further line of inquiry could be to gather data from other developing countries to validate or find out more factors in such settings.

Long-lasting insecticidal nets are an effective tool in reducing malaria transmission. However, with increasing insecticide resistance little is known about how physiologically resistant malaria vectors behave around a human-occupied bed net, despite their importance in malaria transmission. We used the Mbita bednet trap to assess the host-seeking behavior of insecticide-resistant Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes under semi-field conditions. The trap incorporates a mosquito netting panel which acts as a mechanical barrier that prevents host-seeking mosquitoes from reaching the human host baiting the trap

Among protozoan parasites in the genus Babesia, Babesia bigemina is endemic and widespread in the East African region while the status of the more pathogenic Babesia bovis remains unclear despite the presence of the tick vector, Rhipicephalus microplus, which transmits both species. Recent studies have confrmed the occurrence of R. microplus in coastal Kenya, and although B. bovis DNA has previously been detected in cattle blood in Kenya, no surveillance has been done to establish its prevalence. This study therefore investigated the occurrence of B. bovis in cattle in Kwale County, Kenya, where R. microplus is present in large numbers.

In addition to Intra-household resource allocations and internal dynamics of decision-making, gendered perceptions on household food security play a critical role in households’ nutritional status, especially in developing coun- tries. However, evidence on the role of gender-based perceptions on households’ food security and related implications on the households’ nutritional status is limited. This study examines the determinants of gender-disaggregated household food security perceptions among smallholder farming households. We used two panels of data from households in eastern and western Kenya and employ the House hold Food Insecurity Access Scale to measure perceptions of household food insecurity, and the random effects generalized ordered probit model to evaluate the determinants of security perceptions across gender. The results reveal that the factors that influence food security perceptions vary across gender. The education level of household head and the number of relatives were negatively associated with female perceptions of household food insecurity, whereas the household dependency ratio was positively associated with female perceptions of household food insecurity. In contrast, age and gender of household head were positively

The Anza Rift is a northwest-southeast trending sedimentary basin located in northern Kenya. This is one of the remaining underexplored frontier exploration areas possessing high potential in hydrocarbon discoveries considering its proximity to the proliferous petroleum regions of South Sudan and Turkana.

Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) annual reports over the years indicate a continued decline in learners’ performance in English paper at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Among the three English language papers at KCSE, Paper Three which tests writing skills is poorly performed. Moreover, performance of boys has been lower than that of girls. This gender disparity is attributed to among other factors, the instructional approaches adopted by the English teachers. Although studies have been carried out on English language performance, the effects of Cooperative Learning (CL) on gender of secondary school learners in English language writing skills in Nakuru North Sub-county has not been done. This study therefore investigated the effects of CL on gender of secondary school learners’ achievement in English language writing skills. Solomon Four Non-equivalent Control Group Design under the quasi-experimental research was used. The accessible population was all Form Two learners in co-educational schools in Nakuru North Sub-county, Kenya. Purposive sampling technique was used to select four schools with a total of 197 learners. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All learners were taught the same English language content of imaginative essay writing. The experimental groups were taught using CL approach while the control groups were taught using Regular Teaching Approach (RTA). English language Writing Skills Achievement Test (ELWSAT) was used to collect data. ELWSAT was validated and then piloted before use to ascertain the reliability coefficient. The reliability coefficient for ELWSAT was found to be 0.87. Data was analysed using t-test, one-way ANOVA and ANCOVA at a significance level of alpha (α) equal to 0.05. The results of the study showed that there was no statistically significant gender difference in learners’ means when CL was used. The findings of this study may go a long way to reducing gender disparity in English language writing skills.