**1. Introduction**

#### **1.1. The eCampus of Maseno**

The eLearning Centre of Maseno University was established in the year 2007 to spearhead the development of institutional policies and strategies for promoting innovative use of Informa‐ tion and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to benefit learning, teaching, and research activities at the university [10]. In January 2012, it evolved into an eCampus and continued to support academic staff empowerment in modern communication and collaborative learning techniques, to enable them to contribute significantly to quality learning experiences among learners at the university, regardless of their physical location.

The eCampus of Maseno University, therefore, is one of the greatest innovations by Maseno University to facilitate online delivery of high-quality certificate, diploma, and degree programs to learners in various parts of the country, the East African region, and beyond. Maseno University has indeed successfully pioneered the use of modern technology to not only to realize equitable access to higher education through eLearning, but also to improve the quality of educational experience for its face to face learners [18]. The eCampus, which was previously known as the eLearning Centre, has been defined as such in the Maseno University Statutes 2012.

It admitted its first online learners in September, 2011. These were 160 students (102 under‐ graduates and 58 postgraduates) spread across five university programs housed in three different schools. This number has since increased to 892 students admitted in 15 different programs across six schools within the university. Out of these, there are 366 undergraduate and 526 postgraduate students, a pointer to the popularity of the programs by postgraduate learners. Actually, the number of postgraduate students in the online platform is half the total number of postgraduate students in the whole university, making them very significant to the university research fraternity.

#### **1.2. Background to the problem**

Postgraduate supervision of eLearning (fully online) students at Maseno University poses a very great challenge to the normal institutional order because there is no policy or guidelines catering for online supervision. At the same time, most senior lecturers who take part in postgraduate supervision are technologically illiterate, semi-literate, or challenged [10]. The lecturers were already having problems with high numbers of postgraduate students being supervised, which increases significantly when eLearning students are added. It means therefore that there is need to use blended supervision as opposed to the old mode (Face to face). This requires a new policy and procedures for supervision to cater for this unique need, capacity building for lecturers, and a medium to facilitate the new mode [4, 9, 7, 16]. This change is the content of this chapter.

The recommended lecturer to student ratio for postgraduate supervision in Maseno University is 1: 5 and 1:3 for master's and PhD students, respectively [23]. The average ratio of lecturer to postgraduate student supervision is 1:25 for most schools [24]. This challenge of high student numbers, high workload, and low numbers of qualified supervisors needs an immediate solution given this novel mode of learning introduced by eLearning [13]. eLearning has created a chance for a large yet busy group of working learners to go back to class from the comforts of their "homes" and "offices" [7]. By adopting this mode of learning, Maseno University is fulfilling a global demand for lifelong learning [27]. Despite the successful delivery of fully online instruction, the university is yet to formulate policy to institutionalize blended super‐ vision [29]. Therefore, this project is an intervention to help the university come up with policy and procedures that would mainstream blended supervision in its institutional structures.

The eCampus has so far attracted international students from Iraq, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Belgium: a fact that has brought an international feel to the university. The greatest challenge with admitting international students is the examinations, which is done face to face [25]. This has denied many learners a chance to enroll because of costs associated with the travel for face to face examinations. For postgraduate supervision, the challenge is much greater given that an eLearning postgraduate student would have to travel back and forth for supervision, which adds to not only the cost but also the time constraints [7, 9, 16]. There is therefore an urgent need to develop an intervening strategy (blended supervision) to deal with supervision of purely online students, high number of postgraduate students, and lack of an online interaction interface for the postgraduate students [30]. The need is further compounded by the fact the university has three face to face campuses (approximately 150km apart), manned by the same pool of lecturers who teach and supervise postgraduate students. An interactive online supervision platform, when created, would create a pool of researchers (postgraduate students and supervisors), who could be resident in any of the campuses. This idea capitalizes on the affordances of a virtual learning environ‐ ment through the eCampus LMS to build a collaborative learning environment for postgrad‐ uate research students to interact with faculty and peers to share, support, encourage, and learn from each other [1, 3, 7, 9]. The LMS has the advantage of not only closing physical space and bringing everyone closer through the new ICTs but also keeping a record of activities [5].

### **2. Research section**

share supervisors with other research institutions at no extra cost, predicted completion rate for postgraduate research is one year on the blended model, and research outputs from post-graduate students have increased by 50% on average. It is recommended that results from this study need to be replicated in other schools before it can fully inform

**Keywords:** eLearning, online supervision, eCampus, postgraduate research, blended su‐

The eLearning Centre of Maseno University was established in the year 2007 to spearhead the development of institutional policies and strategies for promoting innovative use of Informa‐ tion and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to benefit learning, teaching, and research activities at the university [10]. In January 2012, it evolved into an eCampus and continued to support academic staff empowerment in modern communication and collaborative learning techniques, to enable them to contribute significantly to quality learning experiences among

The eCampus of Maseno University, therefore, is one of the greatest innovations by Maseno University to facilitate online delivery of high-quality certificate, diploma, and degree programs to learners in various parts of the country, the East African region, and beyond. Maseno University has indeed successfully pioneered the use of modern technology to not only to realize equitable access to higher education through eLearning, but also to improve the quality of educational experience for its face to face learners [18]. The eCampus, which was previously known as the eLearning Centre, has been defined as such in the Maseno University

It admitted its first online learners in September, 2011. These were 160 students (102 under‐ graduates and 58 postgraduates) spread across five university programs housed in three different schools. This number has since increased to 892 students admitted in 15 different programs across six schools within the university. Out of these, there are 366 undergraduate and 526 postgraduate students, a pointer to the popularity of the programs by postgraduate learners. Actually, the number of postgraduate students in the online platform is half the total number of postgraduate students in the whole university, making them very significant to the

Postgraduate supervision of eLearning (fully online) students at Maseno University poses a very great challenge to the normal institutional order because there is no policy or guidelines catering for online supervision. At the same time, most senior lecturers who take part in postgraduate supervision are technologically illiterate, semi-literate, or challenged [10]. The

university wide policy, making it a continuing work in progress.

380 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

learners at the university, regardless of their physical location.

pervision

**1. Introduction**

Statutes 2012.

university research fraternity.

**1.2. Background to the problem**

**1.1. The eCampus of Maseno**

This section explains how the project was undertaken as a research venture. The aim was to find a solution with a research backing, hence the scientific approach to the project. It was to be done in phases, and this section reports the research undertaken in phase one 1 of the project.

#### **2.1. Statement of the problem**

The problem that needed urgent attention at the eCampus of Maseno University was the fact that it had embarked on an innovative mode of learning which attracted a high number of postgraduate students (526 in 3 years). The ideal would have been to have these fully online students supported by supervisors through the same platform (LMS). At the same time there was no institutional structure (policy, structured platform, capacity building for supervisors) for the kind of support needed. Compounding the problem was the need to manage high numbers of postgraduate students ready for supervision against a limited human resource. Online supervision was seen as way of mitigating against the problem because it would provide a platform for team supervision and peer education in the course of the research process.

In summary, this project hopes to harness the opportunities in the online platform through a tried and tested LMS to institutionalize blended supervision as a way of managing the postgraduate research process. This would enable the university to reduce the distance between a postgraduate student and supervisor thus increasing the rate and quality of feedback, leveraging the affordances of virtual learning to create an interactive environment for learners and faculty, and in the process, developing institutionally accepted procedures for online supervision out of which a policy on online supervision could be developed.

#### **2.2. Purpose and objectives of the project**

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for blended postgraduate supervision for fully online students at the eCampus of Maseno University. In particular, it was set to:

#### **2.3. Research questions**

The research questions that would need to be answered in the course of this research include the following:

#### **2.4. Significance of the project**

**2.1. Statement of the problem**

382 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

**2.2. Purpose and objectives of the project**

platform

supervisors

University?

Maseno University?

research students and their supervisors?

**2.3. Research questions**

the following:

process.

The problem that needed urgent attention at the eCampus of Maseno University was the fact that it had embarked on an innovative mode of learning which attracted a high number of postgraduate students (526 in 3 years). The ideal would have been to have these fully online students supported by supervisors through the same platform (LMS). At the same time there was no institutional structure (policy, structured platform, capacity building for supervisors) for the kind of support needed. Compounding the problem was the need to manage high numbers of postgraduate students ready for supervision against a limited human resource. Online supervision was seen as way of mitigating against the problem because it would provide a platform for team supervision and peer education in the course of the research

In summary, this project hopes to harness the opportunities in the online platform through a tried and tested LMS to institutionalize blended supervision as a way of managing the postgraduate research process. This would enable the university to reduce the distance between a postgraduate student and supervisor thus increasing the rate and quality of feedback, leveraging the affordances of virtual learning to create an interactive environment for learners and faculty, and in the process, developing institutionally accepted procedures for

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for blended postgraduate supervision for fully online students at the eCampus of Maseno University. In particular, it was set to:

**i.** Identify ways of managing postgraduate supervision milestones in the online

**ii.** Develop policy and procedures for blended supervision of postgraduate students

**iii.** Build a collaborative learning environment for postgraduate students and their

The research questions that would need to be answered in the course of this research include

**i.** How should supervision milestones be managed in the online platform at Maseno

**ii.** What policy and procedures should guide the online postgraduate supervision at

**iii.** How can the university build a collaborative learning environment for postgraduate

online supervision out of which a policy on online supervision could be developed.

The results from this project may influence the mode and quality of postgraduate supervision at Maseno University and possibly other public universities in Kenya. It may introduce capacity building for supervisors as an in-built component in the online supervision course area, which would have an impact in the quality of research outputs. Supervisors and students would also benefit greatly from a reduced workload brought about by mutual sharing and interactivity on the online platform. It also has a global contribution to the supervision process in introducing mentorship of new supervisors by experienced supervisors. The envisaged interaction model and outcome is represented in the figure that follows.

**Figure 1.** Post Graduate Students' Interactions

#### **2.5. Research methodology**

The project used the critical case study design to show-case the Maseno University eCampus operations. The case study design was chosen *"Because of its strength as an applied field where processes, problems, and programs can be examined to bring about understanding that in turn can affect and perhaps even improve practice. Case study has proven particularly useful for studying educational innovations, evaluating programs, and informing policy"* [17].

The population consisted of 526 students, 42 lecturers from the 5 schools with postgraduate courses at eCampus, and 8 university administrators. Purposive sampling was used to select 165 students, 11 lecturers, and 3 administrators from one school that fully embraced the blended supervision model in its formative state. Data were collected using online discussions, observations, and interviews. The collected data were analyzed using time series analysis to identify milestones in the supervision process while predicting best interaction models for online supervision. Regression logit model further helped predict expected completion rates based on existing supervisor to student ratios.

A team of four supervisors who formed the project secretariat designed a supervision course area and piloted it by working with one supervisor from each school who supervised at least two students purposively selected. A team of administrators representing school of graduate studies, the eCampus, school coordinators, and technical team leaders were to brainstorm and harmonize policy and procedures for online supervision of postgraduate research at Maseno University. The project secretariat were to use the final protocol developed to train supervisors towards building a collaborative learning environment for postgraduate research students and their supervisors at Maseno University.

During piloting, data were collected and used to make adjustments in the protocols. Policy documents were then discussed, reviewed, and consultations will be made to determine the extent to which they support implementation of the protocol and areas that need to be harmonized. A validation workshop was held with relevant stakeholders before preparing a final report containing the revised supervision protocol and the necessary policy revision for implementation.

#### **2.6. Project plan**

The following activities (see figure below) will be undertaken in a bid to operationalize the project with the help of a research secretariat composed of four researchers. Each associate researcher will be in charge of two schools having postgraduate studies at the eCampus. Besides overseeing the school activities, they will also assist with specialized areas like creating the collaborative platform, training of supervisors, and engaging with university management. The actual project plan will be carried out in the steps set out in the figure that follows:

#### **2.7. Expected outcomes**

It is expected that at the completion of this project, Maseno University would have developed a policy for blended post graduate supervision; at least 50% (Based on the number of schools offering courses online) of the lecturers undertaking post graduate supervision would have been trained to undertake online supervision of postgraduate students. A reviewed supervi‐ sion policy for online supervision of postgraduate students will be available for use by all postgraduate students at the university, thus improving completion rates because of the community of researchers available to the student researchers. At the same time, the eCampus will have grown the capacity to mentor other universities. This may involve training and knowledge transfer. Lastly, the project will nurture postgraduate students to publish more in refereed journals.