Massive Open Online Courses to benefit Tanzanian Students My Interview with one of the Founder Members of Benueni Innovative Learning (BIL)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are recent development in online courses

aimed at unlimited participation and open access via web. Access to free courses has

allowed students to obtain valuable education that many only could dream of in the

past. Benueni Innovative Learning (BIL) is one of the organizations that joined the

ranks with other MOOCs world wide to offer prized online education for free with a

special focus on elementary and secondary education to benefit Tanzanian students.

I had an opportunity to meet and interviewed Dr. Innocentus Alhamis, a founder

member of BIL about this program and I would like to share this valuable talk to

benefit those in need of quality education in the country. The video of this interview

will be available soon.
David: Hello everybody my name is David Kassiane, the owner and founder of

Dreams Entertainment Company and today I have a pleasure of interviewing Dr.

Innocentus Alhamis, one of the founder members of Benueni Innovative Learning

(BIL). Dr. Alhamis is a renowned professor, currently teaching at Southern New

Hampshire University in US. He was also my mentor when I was studying at Harvard

University in Boston Massachusetts.



David: Welcome Dr. Alhamis Dr. Alhamis: Thank you



David: Dr. Alhamis we have been discussing about this for a long time and

eventually we can see the establishment of a very interesting program that may

have a significant impact to education especially to Tanzanian students. Could you

please explain what is all about this ambitious program?

Dr. Alhamis: Thank you, well, as you know we are working on a program that will

provide Massive Open Online education from elementary to higher levels of

education including specialized courses for various fields. Although this program

will benefit users throughout the world, we believe that our elementary and

secondary part of the program will benefit in particular, Tanzanian students who in

one way or another lack access to quality education.



David: Could you please explain a little bit more about this program?

Dr. Alhamis: The program is aiming at providing what is called Massive Open

Online courses for all levels of education. Our primary school program is mostly

skills-based, to empower students to master concepts especially in mathematics and

science subjects. The secondary school part will offer courses in relation to

Tanzanian secondary school curriculum in order to benefit secondary school

students who are in stark need of quality education. We will provide intensive and

extensive lecture materials, problem solving techniques, approaches to possible

examination questions and so on. Our college or university part will offer variety of courses that are offered at

universities worldwide and are currently on high demand. We will provide live

video lectures of the best professors and instructors on a number of courses.

Imagine how beneficial it can be when a professor provides a wonderful lecture to

his students and that lecture is made available to benefit those who are not present?

We will also offer some specialized courses on a variety of activities ranging from,

agriculture, livestock, business, computer skills, and so on.



David: What is the mode of delivery?

Dr. Alhamis: we will basically offer our courses online, as we believe that Internet

will soon be an integral part of the majority of people in Tanzania and else where in

the world. However, we will also provide such materials in the form of DVDs,

audiocassettes and prints and then disseminate them to the needy students,

instructors and schools throughout the country.



David: You mentioned that Internet will soon be an integral part of the majority of

Tanzanians and therefore you think the majority of students will have access to the

online courses. What made you to believe this?

Dr. Alhamis: well few years ago, it was like a dream for an ordinary person to own a

cellphone. Now it is no longer a dream. Almost everywhere in the country people

are using cellphones. We have seen programs like M-pesa that have been very

successful through cellphone technology. Now by using same technology, and the availability of online services, students will readily access our courses anytime

anywhere for their benefit.



David: How about schools that are in the remote areas where electricity is still a

problem and Internet services are not available. How will this program reach them?

Dr. Alhamis: We have noticed that too. It is true that there are many challenges

facing schools and students in the remote areas and the solutions to such challenges

are not easy or cannot be solved over night. However, as we mentioned earlier, we

have alternatives in our program that are, the use of DVDs, audios, and printed

materials that will benefit them too. We are working on other alternatives like the

use of solar powered computers and so on.



David: What makes this program so important?

Dr. Alhamis: It is obvious that the performance of students in secondary schools is

not encouraging. This is partly due to lack of enough competent teachers, and lack of

resources (including relevant books and notes). The establishment of secondary

schools in the country didn't go well with the availability of such learning tools. So

what we are doing is, we will identify competent teachers from well performing

schools, and commission them the task of recording their lectures, by following our

standards, and we will disseminate their lecture materials through our modes of

delivery and this will be free.

Second, we are not offering just lectures on the topics, but we will go beyond that, by

teaching techniques of mastering the subject matter and how to answer related

examination questions effectively. Many students fail their examinations not

because they don't know or they are completely idiots, but because they lack skills

to read and understand and answer questions accordingly. So this program will

focus on that area.



David: How about the cost per each course?

Dr Alhamis; This program is completely free. That is why it is called massive open

online program, meaning it is open and free for all.



David; Is there any collaboration with similar programs or other organizations?

Dr. Alhamis; We are building collaboration with universities, colleges, schools,

government education departments, for profit and non-profit organizations, similar

programs all around the world and individuals in many ways.



David: When this program is expected to start effectively?

Dr. Alhamis: We are planning to start effectively very soon. We are encouraging

users to visit our website, www.benueni.org frequently to get to know what is new

or what is going on. Also we would like to encourage users to get registered (for

free) so they can access our courses and other resources in our website. Registered

users will benefit from many of our services including our monthly Newsletters, and

updates on our programs.

David: Could you tell us about your own capacity or experience in Education?

Dr. Alhamis: Well I was one of the initial faculty members of the Open University of

Tanzania, a university that offers education through distance learning. While I was

with the Open University of Tanzania, I coordinated the establishment of a number

of activities like creation of the department of Economics, curriculum development

and taught a number courses including economics, business math and statistics,

research methods to mention a few through distance learning. I facilitated the

establishment of Masters of community economic development at the Open

University, which was initially an offshore program of Southern New Hampshire

University in Tanzania. I was also involved in the establishment of the Continuing

education program at the Open University of Tanzania, which is more or less similar

to a program that I was involved in thereafter at SNHU, i.e., Education Continuum

Program. Then I have been teaching online courses at Southern New Hampshire

University in conjunction with face to face and hybrid courses from undergraduate

to graduate levels. I am also involved in a number of curriculum development

programs and other education programs and research.



David: Thank you Dr. Alhamis

Dr. Alhamis: Thank you