TECHNOLOGY USE IN HIGHER EDUCATION DISTANCE LEARNING INSTITUTIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

The use of technology has played an important role in the emergence of new educational paradigms and in distance learning in particular, such as of e-Learning. This paper is about the use of technology by higher education (HE) distance learning institutions with the view to analysing the current reality in Mozambique. The paper is based on a study that covers 10 out of the 14 existing distance learning HE institutions, representing around 95% of the total estimated number of Mozambican distance learning HE students in 2017. The study was carried out through hard copy questionnaires addressing three dimensions i) profile of institutions; ii) characteristics of distance learning programs delivered and iii) technology used for learning purposes. Preliminary results show that the 10 institutions started their programs from the year 2000 onwards; 9 are dual mode and only 1 is fully online; 70% of the institutions are private. All of them provide graduation programs mainly in the fields of education, social science, management and law. Regarding the use of technologies, 9 indicated that run their programs based on the Moodle platform, mainly for download and upload of study materials by students, online tutorial, communication and assessment. It is expected that the study will contribute to the promotion of the awareness of the importance of distance learning in the Mozambican HE and of the current status of the sector, paving the way for future public policies that take further advantage of the improvement of the level of digitalization of the Mozambican society.