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The Institutional Repository is a digital hub for scholarly communication and knowledge dissemination which serves as a vital resource for researchers, students and the wider academic community. Content comprises of research publications, theses, conference proceedings and much more.
Recent Submissions
ICT Infrastructural Factors That Influence the Adoption of E-Learning in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya
(International Journal of Science and Research, 2015) Wanyaga, Munyi Felister; Kamau, John W; Gikandi, Joyce
E-learning is Learning that is supported by use of electronic technology aided by computers. Emphasis on teacher centred
teaching could be changed to student centred with the emergence of using E-learning technologies in schools thus creating an
environment that is interactive and interesting for learning. A pedagogical shift has been facilitated by E-learning entailing an
interaction between learners and Teachers in education. Despite the various studies conducted on E-learning, adoption of E-learning
technologies in public secondary schools in Kenya is far from being realized. This begs into the question as to how ICT infrastructural
factors influences the adoption of E-learning in secondary schools. This study filled this gap by analyzing ICT infrastructure as the key
factor influencing E-learning adoption in public secondary schools in Kenya. A broad understanding of this factor is important to the
policy makers who can embrace it to enhance the adoption of E-learning and suppress the barriers of its adoption. A cross sectional
descriptive survey was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methods and a census done on 8 public secondary schools in
Kiambu County. Data was collected using both questionnaires and semi-structured interview guide. The study established that most
schools had low investment in ICT infrastructure due to high costs of computer hardware, software and related accessories. The
adoption of E-learning implementations has resulted in the need for development of new skills and competencies among Teachers as
most Teachers who have been teaching in traditional methods are not technologically literate and sometimes may even resist because of
the worry about losing their jobs if E-learning is implemented, because of their inadequate skills. The study recommends that there is
need for schools to have E-learning infrastructure included in the financial plans to cater for maintenance and expansion of the ICT
infrastructure . (297 words)
A Literature Survey of Image Descriptors in Content Based Image Retrieval
(International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2016-03) Mohamed, Abdulrehman Ahmed; Makori, Cyrus Abanti; Kamau, John
As a result of the new communication technologies and the massive use of Internet in the society, the amount of audio-visual information available in digital format is increasing considerably. This has necessitated designing systems that allow describing the content of several types of multimedia information in order to search and classify them. The audio visual descriptors are used for contents description in Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR). The CBIR is a technique for retrieving images on the basis of automatically-derived features such as color, texture and shape. It uses digital processing and analysis to automatically generate descriptions directly from the media data. Image descriptors are the descriptions of the visual features of the contents in images, which describe elementary characteristics of images such as the shape,
the color, the texture or the motion, among others. A literature survey study is most important for understanding and gaining insight about specific area of a subject. Therefore, in this paper we survey some of the state-of-art technical aspects of image descriptors in CBIR. Even though lots of research works had been published on CBIR, however, in this paper an effort has been made to explore an in-depth chronological growth in this field of image descriptors with respect to performance measure metrics of CBIR systems.
A Model for Total Cost Determination in Open-Source Software Ownership: Case of Kenyan Universities’ Learning Management System
(Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2024-03-08) Kodhek, Duncan Kereu; Kamau, John Wachira; Musyoka, Faith Mueni
The adoption of open-source products is slowly increasing; the increase, however, is slower than expected, considering that most open-source products are freely available. Researchers and scholars have attributed the
adoption levels to, among other things, a lack of know-how of the total cost of ownership of the open-source software. Thus, it is crucial for the cost of owning the software to be developed. While an ongoing endeavor to develop a model to determine the total cost of ownership of open-source software, the models have proved to be less accurate and do not capture essential elements. Moreover, there has been a rising call for organizations to
adopt open-source software to lower the software costs incurred on proprietary software. If the cost of owning open-source software were known, it would be beneficial as several organizations and institutions could adopt it
readily. The data was collected from Universities in Kiambu and Embu Counties. Linear regression analysis was done to help develop the model, and a mathematical model was developed. The proposed model was: total cost
of open-source software ownership = direct + +indirect + hidden costs. To validate the model, it was subjected to expert validation. The model will be an outstanding contribution to information technology as it will make it
possible to come up with the total cost of owning open-source software.
Content Based Approach for Detecting Smishing Messages in Mobile Phones Using an Improved Convolutional Neural Networks Model
( African Journal of Empirical Research, 2025-04-21) Mbevi, Rose Mueni; Kamau, John; Musyoka, Faith Mueni
SMS stands for Short Message Service (SMS). Short messaging service is a text messaging service where a user can send short messages via a mobile device. Short message service has evolved and become very popular as a communication medium in the last decade. It has become a more effective mode of communication compared to email. Unfortunately, smishing (SMS phishing) has emerged as the most common type of spam because traditional detection methods have difficulty understanding the informal nature
of these messages. An improved class of CNN-based models targeted at accurate detection of smishing on mobile devices was developed. Deep learning theory was used in this work. (UCI) refers to University of California, Irvine (UCI). The UCI Machine Learning Repository contains datasets, domain theories, and data generators used by the machine learning community to
empirically study machine learning algorithms. In this study, a research design was carried out and samples of the UCI Machine Learning Repository were used to build an experimental model. The analyzed dataset was a set of 5, 574 SMS messages from both spam and non-spam messages. The performance metrics used were Precision, Recall, F1-Score and Accuracy. The CNN model
used for evaluation, had a bigger number of hidden layers for better detection. A higher accuracy of 99. 95% was achieved, indicating good performance and better detection of the SMS spams (SMS phishing). In the analysis mentioned in the text, the text preprocessing greatly contributes to improved detection accuracy and CNN outperforms the traditional detection methods. It shows
that the sophisticated nature of smishing attacks make it necessary for advanced detection mechanisms to be applied to prevent future SMS threats. Although some authorities for implementation should allocate resources to implement these solutions, other authorities must define roles for different detection systems in order to realize the ideal and continuous performance of the detection tools. However, various authorities should also continuously enhance detection mechanisms by feature enhancement, data
augmentation, and regular performance evaluation. The training for the staff and establishment of the performance benchmarks needs to be implemented. The users should also contribute with their comments, reports suspicious message, and raising awareness for each other, while all other stakeholders should make available their expertise and resources to support this work.
Beyond Free: Hidden Costs as Major Contributors to Owning Open Source Software in Open Distance and E-Learning (ODEL) Departments of Universities in Embu and Kiambu Counties, Kenya
(African Journal of Empirical Research , 2025) Kodhek, Duncan Kereu; Kamau, John Wachira
The adoption of open-source software is growing, but at a slower rate than expected, despite its availability at no upfront cost.
This is due to various direct, indirect, and hidden costs associated with ownership. Hidden costs, in particular, have a significant impact on the total cost of ownership, often outweighing direct and indirect costs. Understanding these cost factors is crucial for stakeholders to fully assess the financial implications. The Gartner’s total cost of ownership theory was adopted for this study as it is a well-grounded theory in matters software cost estimation. The research design that was applied in this study is the
explanatory sequential research design which involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data to better understand the concept of hidden costs in total cost of ownership of open source software. The population for the study was 316 participants in the open distance and learning departments (ODEL) in universities in Embu and Kiambu counties. The sampling
technique used was the purposive sampling on the institutions that had customized and were using open source learning management system. The resultant sample size was 62 participants. The instrument used for data collection was a likert scale questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS 24 and both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied on the collected
data. The results obtained showed a relationship between direct cost factors and indirect cost factors to the total cost of ownership of open source software. Also, the hidden costs were identified as the greatest contributors to the total cost of ownership of open source software. Highlighting these hidden costs is essential for stakeholders to better track and manage them. This study
contributes to the field by adapting Gartner’s original model of total cost of ownership to open-source software. The recommendations for this study are that institutions should have a tracking mechanism for the cost factors of open source software so as to be able to cut down on costs. Also, government institutions are encouraged to track the costs of open source
before choosing to adopt open source software.
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