The influence of the quality of Kiswahili instructional materials on the performance of bachelor of education (arts) university of Nairobi distance education students

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the influence of quality of Kiswahili instructional materials on the performance of Bachelor of Education (Arts) University of Nairobi distance education students. The paper sought to determine the quality of the instructional materials, also called modules, by looking at the content, the assessment procedures in the materials and the presentation style. The study used survey research design. A sample of 60 Kiswahili distance students and 6 Kiswahili lecturers from University of Nairobi participated in this study. Data was collected from the respondents using questionnaire for the students and interview schedules for the lecturers. A document analysis schedule for the instructional materials was also used to analyze the materials. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed in themes based on the objectives of the study. The study revealed that the quality of Kiswahili instructional materials issued to the Bachelor of Education (Arts) distance education students was impaired by the inappropriateness of the content as there was a lot of content that was either irrelevant or partially relevant as compared to the course outlines the lecturers were using. Since the materials were developed in 1988, there is content that had been overtaken by time and was therefore outdated. This meant that such materials were not of value to students as they prepared for their examinations and therefore they had little influence on the performance of students. The study findings indicated that most of the lecturers used their own modified notes to teach the students and they set the examinations from the content in the notes hence majority of the students relied on the lecture notes and not the modules provided. This further indicated that there was little significance in the influence of modules on the performance of students. This paper recommends that Kiswahili instructional materials content should be reviewed and written in line with the current updated course outlines that most lecturers were using to teach and examine the students.