Academic institutions such as the University of South Africa (Unisa) are using information and communication technology (ICT) in order to conduct their daily primary operations, which are teaching and learning. Unisa is the only distance learning university in South Africa and also in Africa. Unisa currently has the highest number of students on the continent of Africa. In an attempt to bridge the gap between facilitators and students, Unisa introduced a learning management system known as myUnisa.MyUnisa is used by facilitators and students as a tool to conduct teaching and learning, and for communication. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, factors that influence its acceptance and usage have not been studied prior to this study. The main deciders of the success of technology are the users, as is reflected in the well-established theories and models that exist to evaluate the acceptance of technology and innovation. The objective of this study was to understand the factors that contribute to the usage of myUnisa by students. An online questionnaire was used for data collection, and a quantitative analysis was conducted. Among others, the results reveal that complexity does not have a significant impact on the students' decision to use myUnisa.Keywords: open distance learning, learning management system, online learning, ODL, higher educationIn the twenty-first century, institutions of higher learning use information and communication technology (ICT) to conduct their daily operations, and this often includes using ICT for teaching and learning. The University of South Africa (Unisa) is the largest open distance learning (ODL) university on the African continent. It has more than 150,000 students registered each academic year, and these students are spread across South Africa as well as other countries in Africa and beyond. The university has adopted an ODL model, supported by myUnisa as an official university learning management system (LMS).The academic staff members at Unisa predominantly use myUnisa as the instructional delivery tool of choice. In line with the ODL model, the university's admission policy is open, in the sense that it allows admission to tertiary education to students from a wide spectrum of socio-economic environments. Given South Africa's socio-economic, socio-cultural, and political history, it is beneficial to understand the Diffusion of Innovations Approach to the Evaluation of Learning Management System Usage in an ODL InstitutionMkhize, Mtsweni, and Buthelezi 296factors that influence the usage of myUnisa, from the students' perspective. In this study the researchers will define the research problem, conduct a literature survey to develop a theoretical framework as the basis of inquiry, and explain the research methodology used to obtain the results, which will lead to the conclusion of the study. Problem StatementIn an institution as large as the University of South Africa, a minor system glitch could have serious consequences for user perception, affecting hundreds o...

The banking sector globally is saddled with intensified competition. Coupled with global economic situation of little tolerance for inappropriate resources usage, financial institutions have to pursue different strategies to meet the challenges and opportunities of providing quality services to existing customers, attract new customers, improve the turnover of employee, and increase long-term firm performance. Innovation and technology are considered fundamental elements of strategic management. Implementing strategies to achieve a better relationship between technological innovation and financial services are essential. In determining the level of banking technological innovation, the study analyses responses as perceived by customers and employees at branch level of universal banks in Ghana and examines how these perceptions influence their preferences and assessments. 88% of customers and 96% of employees indicated their banks are innovative. 92% of customers will recommend their banks to others, whiles 81% of employee indicated positive innovation impact on profitability. From a logistic regression model, eight (8) factors were found to be significant (p-value <0.05), indicating that customers are more likely to rate banks as innovative for service offering consistency with the latest innovations, product or service quality, new or improved product or service, and products or services features. For bank employees, innovation effect on process, innovation effect on risk management, and innovation effect on employee productivity were identified as the main perceptions for rating their banks as innovative. Practical implications and limitations of the study are also presented.

Abstract-The alignment between information systems strategy and business strategy as an important driver of competitiveness has predominantly been assessed through quantitative methods without exploring in detail factors that influence strategic alignment and their implications for perceived business performance. Most IS-business strategic alignment studies dominantly focus on entire business and IS strategies resulting in many findings that are too general and inconclusive. This study aims at assessing strategic alignment factors, their interrelationships, and how they influence the IS-business alignment and its consequential effect on the performance of six universal banks in Ghana. The study followed the systematic procedure of grounded theory design and adopted qualitative dominant crossover mixed analysis. The findings of the study indicate strategic alignment between information systems strategy and technological innovation impacts positively on the performance of a firm where IT utilization complements resources and capabilities.

Background: Social media platforms are thriving on the co-creation of content, usually socially orientated content about the social interests of participants. There is also a growing trend of social media application in the human resources and marketing for business purposes. This study investigates factors that have an impact on the sharing of knowledge on social media platforms, particularly students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) institution.Objective: This study evaluates the difference between direct and indirect benefit exchange expected by students when sharing knowledge.Method: Random and theoretical sampling were used to select the sample in this study from the population. A literature-informed questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data from a selected sample of 315 students from the School of Computing at the University of South Africa.Results: A test of association was conducted to evaluate correlations, which revealed that only reputation and social language correlate with direct and indirect benefit exchange. Results indicate that there is a significant mean difference between direct and indirect benefit exchange and that issues concerning social identity and trust should be taken into account when developing social media instructional design.Conclusion: In this study, a survey was used to test the hypothesis. The authors concluded that instructional designer can design teaching and learning experience in the social media platform by catering for both direct and indirect benefit knowledge exchange. The results of the study further confirmed that some students share knowledge with the expectation of direct exchange benefit and, meanwhile, expect indirect exchange benefit.

Background: Knowledge-sharing culture permits knowledge reuse, exchange of knowledge, experiences and insights in an institution to achieve strategic goals. Knowledge-sharing requires motivation through rewards and recognition to improve employee engagement. The article provides an analysis of factors to promote a knowledge-sharing culture change.Objectives: The two objectives were designed to examine the factors that promote knowledge-sharing culture change and to recommend strategies that encourage knowledge- sharing.Method: An online questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data from a higher education institution in Zimbabwe: a developing country on the African continent.Results: The results established that rewards, recognition, promotion and bonuses are significant factors in promoting a knowledge-sharing culture change. It emerged that 53.3% of the participants approved that knowledge- sharing is dependent on the disposition of the individual whilst the other 46.7% of the participants were either indecisive or disagreed with the proposition. Rewards are important to the extent that 91.7% of the participants approved the proposition. It was also confirmed by 95% of the participants that recognition adds value to an institution. Moreover, 80% of the participants submitted that recognition contributes to employee retention and engagement. Fascinatingly, 88.3% of the participants settled on the proposition that recognition allows access to top talent and 68.3% concurred that promotion encourages loyalty.Conclusion: Rewards, recognition, promotion and bonuses are important factors that encourage a knowledge-sharing culture. Rewards strengthen employee value proposition whilst recognition allows access to top talent. Promotion inspires employees whilst bonuses are perceived as signalling employee appreciation, which stimulates a knowledge-sharing culture.