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University of Dar es SalaamFrom Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education
It is the oldest and biggest public university in Tanzania. It was established on 1st July 1970, through parliament act no. 12 of 1970 and all the enabling legal instruments of the constituent colleges. Prior to 1970, the university college, Dar es Salaam had started on 1st July 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. It had only one faculty- the faculty of Law, with 14 students. In 1963 it became a constituent college of the university of East Africa together with Makerere University College in Uganda and Nairobi University College in Kenya. Since 1961, the University of Dar es Salaam has grown in terms of student intake, academic units and academic programmes. The University of Dar es Salaam or UDSM was born out of a decision taken in 1970 to split the University of East Africa into three independent universities; Makerere University (Uganda), University of Nairobi (Kenya) and University of Dar es Salaam. The University of Dar es Salaam is recognised as an important virtual initiative in HE in Tanzania.
They use the tool Blackboard Learning System 6, under the name TEIL; also they use the latest version of Moodle. The use of both online services allows exploitation of the strengths of each software, e.g Moodle is an open software, so the users are able to create more applications. Furthermore they use other key resources in e-learning such as iLab, an online laboratory, and eGranary, a digital library that provides millions of digital educational resources to institutions lacking adequate Internet access (garnering permissions to copy websites). In Tanzania there is an association called Distance Education Association of Tanzania (DEATA); this was founded to promote the distance learning. This organization is in touch with SAIDE, South African institute for distance education, to know the new trends of e-learning and use some of them. The University of Dar es Salaam web site is at http://www.udsm.ac.tz/ > Tanzania
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