Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The Centre for Open and Distance Learning at Mzuzu University was established
in 2006 with the aim to increase and broaden access to higher education to most Malawians
who despite meeting entry requirements into higher education were not selected because of
shortage of space on campus and other learning and teaching resources. Although Open and
Distance Learning (ODL) is hyped as a practical option for making higher education available
to many people as widely reported in the literature, universities need to address several issues
for it to hold its ground.
OBJECTIVES: The study set out to investigate information needs and barriers to information
sources by ODL students by addressing three objectives, namely information needs of ODL
students, information sources of ODL students and challenges that ODL students face when
seeking information for their courses of study.
METHOD: A survey questionnaire with a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions was
distributed to 350 students to find out the information sources and challenges that the ODL
students face when searching for information to accomplish their academic activities.
Results: According to the findings, all 258 (100%) students who answered the questionnaire
need information to prepare for the end-of-semester examinations. Information sources that
are used most by students include lecture notes, Internet and library books with scores of 238
(92.6%), 207 (80.5%) and 199 (77.4%), respectively.
CONCLUSION: ODL students have limited access to information materials for accomplishing
their academic activities and Mzuzu University can resolve this challenge by introducing
satellite information centres in the three geographical regions of Malawi.
