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Assessment of the Application of m-Learning Technology by Nurses, Midwives and Students in Tanzania

Henry A. Mollel* and Joseph Pilot

The use of mobile phones to access health learning materials (m-Learning platform) was implemented in Tanzania to provide nurses and midwives with current information on sexual and reproductive health and legal health rights of youth aged 15-24 years. We evaluated the use of the "Jibu" m-Learning platform after one year of implementation. the objective of the research were i) To assess the proportion of nurses, midwives and students who were not or were no longer currently using the ""Jibu"" m- Learning platform (dormant users) at the time of the assessment. ii) To explored the reasons that led to dormant use of the m- Learning platform. In 2015, we conducted a mixed methods evaluation study including 428 randomly selected participants (comprising nurses, midwives and students) from 1468 people trained on the use of the "Jibu" m-Learning platform to assess the use of the platform a year after training. We used questionnaires and semi-structured interview guides to measure the number of people who had not used or had stopped using "Jibu" m-Learning since training (dormant users) and those who were using the platform for accessing health materials (active users). We also explored reasons for not using the platform. Out of 428 participants, 320 (74.8%) were dormant users and 108 (25.2%) were active users. Participants came from 16 health facilities and 9 nursing schools. Following their initial training, 91% of dormant users had not used and 9% had stopped using the "Jibu" m- Learning platform. The reasons given for dormant use included lack of mobile phones, inability to pay for internet bandwidth and inadequate technical support. The uptake of m-learning technology by nurses and midwives in Tanzania is low because of inadequate technical support and not owning mobile phones that support the technology. There are design and implementation challenges that need to be considered when introducing new technology like m-Learning.