ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the results of a project that integrated mobile phone technology and multimedia to provide a solution for reaching students from urban to rural and Indigenous communities. Lack of integrated multimedia in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) materials due to bandwidth and cost limitations, inaccessibility due to power cuts and unreliable Internet connectivity, together with many other challenges faced by students with special needs, were seen as issues that could be dealt with mLearning. The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is the largest higher learning institution in Tanzania to offer undergraduate and postgraduate academic programs via ODL mode. There are growing numbers of students from outside Tanzania due to the accessibility of the ODL materials integrated with multimedia and enhanced teaching and learning anywhere, anytime using the OUT mobile learning application. The Open University of Tanzania carried out the mobile learning project with the aim of integrating multimedia in ODL materials and enhancing their access through mobile phones.