Maximising Mobile Applications for Cost-effective Training in Africa: Evidence from an Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This study examined the use of a mobile application to train facilitators of adult literacy with a view to exploring the possibility of providing cost-effective facilitator training, as against regular training programmes which incur several additional costs for venue, feeding, production of training manuals, honorarium, accommodation, subsistence allowance, among others. This has been a reason for which facilitator training has become a neglected field in most African countries, especially Nigeria. The study adopted the pretest-posttest control group, quasi-experimental design, and selected 66 adult literacy facilitators using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Two research questions were raised and analysed using frequency count, mean and standard deviation. Results revealed that it is cheaper to train using the mobile application compared to conventional face-to-face training method; and that participants in the experimental group who used the Mobile Training Application performed better than participants in the control group who went through the conventional training. Recommendations were made based on these findings that awareness could be created among adult literacy facilitators about this innovation of the mobile application for training. Also, the government, as well as other organisations interested in the training of facilitators, such as UNESCO, could be encouraged to adopt this cost-effective means to train facilitators of adult literacy in Nigeria and other African countries.