A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Communication Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the extranet as a communication tool in higher education institutions. The study used the case study of myUnisa - an extranet used at the University of South Africa. This was a mixed-methods research and had applied the quantitative and qualitative methods. This was a multistage study which went through two stages. In the first stage the researcher utilised the questionnaire to collect data from the students. Initially, the questionnaire was intended to be self-administered to allow students to complete them on their own, but difficulties to meet some of the sampled students on one-to-one encounter alternatively led to telephonic interviews on which the role of the researcher was to interview, and to tick and write down the responses of the respondents. Four hundred students were sampled using the online randomizer programme available on the internet. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 18 was used to analyse qualitative data. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews with two key staff members from each of the department sampled were held and an analysis was done using thematic categorization. The study found that myUnisa is used by different UNISA departments and students for communications. However, although many students and staff members considered myUnisa useful, not all regarded it as effective. In-depth interviews with lecturers showed that myUnisa is both a useful and an effective online communication channel for engaging into communications with the students. An analysis of the responses led to the development of an extranet model for implementation in higher education institution. A number of recommendations were made and suggestions for future research considerations were also given.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1334 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Netanda, Rendani Sipho |
| Contributors | Rugbeer, H., Naidoo, G.M. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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