international journal ofseeks to develop a model to help forecast telecommunication 2g network voice...

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF

TECHNOLOGY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

IJTE

Volume 1 - Issue 1 - June 2018

ISSN: 2637-3505

ii

Editor in Chief

Dr. Kofi Bobi Barimah Ghana Technology University College

Managing Editor

Mr. Mark Ofori Nketia Ghana Technology University College

Editorial Board

Disclaimer:

The Editors cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this

journal; the ideas, views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Publisher and Editors. Responsibility of

expressions made in articles and other contributions remains solely with the respective author.

Copyright © 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the

prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by:

IJTE Secretariat, Ghana Technology University College

Prof. Isaac Abeku Blankson Ghana Technology University College

Prof. Samuel Bonsu Ghana Institute of Management and

Public Administration

Prof. Saeed Akbar Wilfred Laurier University, Canada

Prof. Msg. Steve Ntim Catholic University College of Ghana

Dr. Stephen Asunka Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Ezer Osei Yeboah Boateng Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Ebenezer Malcalm Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Neil Hart Coventry University, U.K

Dr. Kester Quist-Aphetsi Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Daniel Adjin Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Charles Owusu Kwarteng Ghana Technology University College

Dr. Yaw Owusu-Agyeman Ghana Technology University College

Mr. Christopher John Bland Coventry University, U.K

Mr. Michael Owusu Tabiri Ghana Technology University College

Mr. Prince Obeng Lokko Ghana Technology University College

Mr. Emmanuel Freeman Ghana Technology University College

iii

About IJTE

International Journal of Technology and Entrepreneurship (IJTE) is a peer review Journal that

publishes both theoretical and experimental high quality papers of sustained interest in the field

of entrepreneurship and technology. Ultimately, the goal is to promote the theory and practice of

technology and entrepreneurship. In addition to peer-reviewed original research papers, the

Editorial Board welcomes original research reports, state-of-the-art reviews and communications

in the broadly defined field of entrepreneurship and technology.

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CONTENTS

Contents Analysis and Modelling of Telecommunications Network Traffic: A Time Series Approach .............................. 1 Francis Kwabena Oduro-Gyimah, Kwame Osei Boateng

Adult Learning and Small-Scale Business Promotion in the Communities: Prospects, Challenges and

Strategies .................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Isaac Kofi Biney

Design of Autonomous Rescue Mat for Robotics Inspired Science Education..................................................... 39 Isaac Kuma Yeboah, Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Curricular Thread: A First- Year Experience Pilot Course at Kattering

University USA .......................................................................................................................................................... 47 Abdrahamane Traoré, Massoud S. Tavakoli

Empowering the Ghanaian Youth for Accelerated Development ......................................................................... 57 Michael Owusu Tabiri

Experiencing Change Through Continuous Professional Development: The Case of Ghana Technology

University College ...................................................................................................................................................... 67 Esi Akyere Mensah, Derrick Ofori Donkor, Michael Owusu–Akomeah, Peter Lawer Angmor

System Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Raspberry Pi Home Automation ..................................... 84 Francis Kwabena Oduro-Gyimah, Stephen Asomaning

Strategic Collaborations at a Technology Research and Innovation Centre in Ghana ..................................... 103 Prince Obeng Lokko, Mark Ofori Nketia , Kofi Bobi Barimah

The Fate of Ghanaian SME Startups ..................................................................................................................... 123 Forgoh Eric Chick

The Building Occupants’ Factor in Reducing Electric Energy Wastage in Ghanaian

Residential Homes- A Critical Review................................................................................................................... .138

Mosner-Ansong K.F, Duah, D

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP VOL. 1, ISSUE 1, JUNE 2018

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ISSN: 2637-3505 www.ijteonline.org

ANALYSIS AND MODELLING OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

NETWORK TRAFFIC: A TIME SERIES APPROACH

Francis Kwabena Oduro-Gyimah

1 and Kwame Osei Boateng

2

1Ghana Technology University College

2Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

Corresponding author‟s email: [email protected]

Abstract

Telecommunication network traffic demand continues to increase exponentially worldwide, and Ghana is no

exception. This situation is as a result of the increasing access to telecommunication services coupled with the

telecommunication equipment vendors‟ response to the corresponding increase in new devices on the market.

Sustenance of this pace requires careful planning to meet the traffic demand of the subscribers. One of the time

tested methods of developing the network in order to satisfy the numerous subscribers is forecasting. This study

seeks to develop a model to help forecast telecommunication 2G network voice traffic. The data set used for the

study is a primary source from a commercial telecommunications network operator in Ghana, from February 2013

to January 2015 which consist of 700 daily observations. Using the Zivot-Andrews test, the structural breaks in the

data were identified for constant, trend, and then at constant and trend levels. The various modelling methodology

of identification, parameter estimation and diagnostic checking were followed, and the best model with the minimum

Akaike, Bayesian and Akaike (corrected) information criterion was 1 − 𝜙1𝐵 (1 − 𝐵)𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 𝜔𝑡 . The

selected model was used to forecast 2G daily voice network traffic which recorded a minimal deviation from the

actual data.

Keywords: Forecasting, Telecommunications Network, 2G, Network Traffic, Zivot-Andrews Test, Structural

Breaks

Introduction

elecommunication network traffic demand continues to increase exponentially worldwide, and

Ghana is no exception. Studies have found out that the number of mobile cellular phone

subscriptions is increasing worldwide, with the population of the people on earth gradually equaling the

usage (ITU, 2014). According to Diaz-Aviles et al. (2015), developing countries are estimated to have

about three quarters of the total subscription of the world‟s cellular mobile phones. Costello (2015)

reported that “according to GSMA Intelligence, 2G technology still accounts for 58.5 per cent of the

world‟s 7.11 billion mobile connections, compared to 32.5 per cent for 3G and 9 per cent for 4G. The

analyst house expects 2G technology to maintain global market dominance until the beginning of 2019”.

These statistics call for appropriate response from operators in the mobile communication sector. Meeting

this exponential growth requires effective planning and rapid expansion of telecommunication systems as

T


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well as introduction of modern equipment. One approach to guide industry players is the development and

adoption of appropriate prediction models to drive this agenda. Prediction methods can be classified as

long and short term. According to Gowrishankar (2008) the prediction process that is based on time span

in weeks, months and years are the long term prediction while short term predictions are the milliseconds,

seconds, minutes, hours and days. Time series modelling and forecasting have extensively been employed

to analyse telecommunication network traffic (Abdullah, Daw and Seman, 2015; KuanHoong, Tan and

YikKeong, 2012). ARMA models have been shown to have a stable prediction on BitTorrent traffic

(KuanHoong, Tan and YikKeong, 2012). On the contrary, Moussas, Daglis and Kolega (2005) pointed

out that the prediction accuracy of ARIMA (p,d,q) models have a limited time span. Wang et al. (2015)

pointed out that ARIMA (1,2,1) model performed well in forecasting telecom income. Suarez, Parra and

Diaz (2009) used Wi-Fi network traffic data to develop ARIMA models and concluded that ARIMA

performed better. In the literature several linear time series models have been proposed AR, MA, ARMA,

ARIMA etc. In this study, the accuracy of a number of models were considered, however ARIMA was

selected for forecasting 2G daily voice traffic. This study seeks to develop a model to help forecast

telecommunication 2G network voice traffic and also determine the structural breaks in the data using

Zivot-Andrews test (Zivot and Andrews, 1992).

Overview of GSM Architecture

Basically the GSM architecture comprises Operations Subsystem, Network Service Subsystem and Base

Station Subsystem. The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) consists of Base Station Controller (BSC) and

Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs). The BTS is fundamentally the radio station that broadcasts to and

receives from the mobile station in a cell (Snow, Chen and Weckman, 2012). On the other hand, the BSC

is the controlling entity for one or more BTSs and responsible for managing voice traffic, data traffic and

signalling messages for all the BTSs under its control. In addition the BSS offers the transmission path

traffic and signalling between Mobile station (MS) and the Network Service Subsystem (NSS) (Du and

Swamy, 2010; Eberspächer, Vögel and Bettstetter, 2001).

The NSS is the switching and control component of the entire GSM architecture. It is made up of the

Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) and the Home Location Register (HLR), Visitor Location Register

(VLR), Equipment Identity Register (EIR) and the Authentication Centre. The MSC is the central heart of

the GSM architecture. The failure of a MSC characteristically causes break in communication to all users

that the MSC manages since calls cannot be terminated or originated. The MSC also supports billing

functions such as collecting Call Detail Records (CDR) (Du and Swamy, 2010; Eberspächer, Vögel and


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Bettstetter, 2001). All these components are interconnected with one another to offer mobile

communication services such as voice and data to customers of an operator.

Methodology Data Description

The data set employed in this study is a primary source from a commercial telecommunications network

operator in Ghana. It consists of daily 2G voice traffic from February 2013 to January 2015, with 700

observations. The data represented 14 Base Station Controllers (BSC) that have been installed throughout

the country, with two thousand and twenty five (2025) BTSs. The data covers urban, suburban and rural

areas, which contain commercial centres of cities, residential areas, business buildings, villages, hotels,

schools, farms etc.

Structural Break Test in the Network Traffic

A structural break is a change in the time series of telecommunication traffic data as a result of a distinct

demand in traffic. The study of structural breaks have mostly been concentrated in the field of economics

(Nilsson, 2009). Tests showed that most telecommunications network variables are non-stationary and

contain a unit root (Oduro-Gyimah, 2011). This explains why a structural break can have a permanent

effect on the pattern of the time series (Byrne and Perman, 2007). As cited in Nilsson (2009), Perron

(1989) proposed three types of models to test for the existence of structural breaks. The first model allows

for a break in the intercept (level) of the time series as shown in equation (1).

𝑦𝑡 = 𝛼0 + 𝛼1𝐷𝑈𝑡 + 𝑑(𝐷𝑇𝐵)𝑡 + 𝛽𝑡 + 𝜌𝑥𝑡−1 + ∅𝑖∆𝑥𝑡−1

𝑝

𝑖=1+ 𝑒1 (1)

The second is the break in the linear trend. It is determined by using equation (2)

𝑦𝑡 = 𝛼0 + 𝛾𝐷𝑇𝑡∗ + 𝛽𝑡 + 𝜌𝑦𝑡−1 + ∅𝑖∆𝑥𝑡−1

𝑝

𝑖=1+ 𝑒1 (2)

The third model shown in equation (3) is used to calculate the structural break for both intercept and

trend.

𝑦𝑡 = 𝛼0 + 𝛼1𝐷𝑈𝑡 + 𝑑(𝐷𝑇𝐵)𝑡 + 𝛾𝐷𝑇𝑡 + 𝛽𝑡 + 𝜌𝑦𝑡−1 + ∅𝑖∆𝑦𝑡−1

𝑝

𝑖=1+ 𝑐 (3)


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Where TB is the break date.

The intercept dummy 𝐷𝑈𝑡 shows a change in level where

𝐷𝑈𝑡 = 1, 𝑖𝑓(𝑡 > 𝑇𝐵)

0, 𝑜𝑡𝑕𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒

The slope dummy 𝐷𝑈𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑇𝑡∗corresponds to a change in the slope of the trend function

𝐷𝑇∗ = 𝑡 − 𝑇𝐵

𝐷𝑇𝑡∗ =

𝑡, 𝑖𝑓 (𝑡 > 𝑇𝐵)0, 𝑜𝑡𝑕𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒

Based on the three models by Perron (1989), Zivot and Andrews (1992) suggested the following

approach:

a) Proposed a test where the break date is estimated instead of assuming that the break dates are

fixed. The test allows for a single break in the intercept and the trend.

b) The authors used the intervention outlier model for the model in equation (2) with the regression

written as equation (4)

𝑦 𝑡𝐵 = 𝑎 𝐵𝑦 𝑡−1

𝐵 + 𝑐 𝑖𝑘

𝑖=1+ ∆𝑦 𝑡−𝑖

𝐵 + 𝑒 𝑖 (4)

Where 𝑦 𝑡𝐵 is the residuals from a regression with 𝑦𝑡as the dependent variable.

c) They also suggested that the structural break is an endogenous occurrence and the null hypothesis

for Perron‟s models must be represented as:

𝑦𝑡 = 𝛼0 + 𝑦𝑡−1 + 𝑒𝑡 (5)

Equation (5) means that the alternative hypothesis specifies that 𝑦𝑡 can be a trend stationary process with

one break that occurs at an unknown point in time in the trend.


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Modelling 2g Daily Voice Traffic

In the model identification stage, the order of the AR and MA for the ARIMA model are determined.

Let

𝑝, 𝑑 and 𝑞 be the order of non − seasonal 𝐴𝑅, differencing and 𝑀𝐴

respectively.

𝑥𝑡represents time series data at period 𝑡.

𝑤𝑡represents white noise error random shock

at period 𝑡.

𝐴𝑅𝐼𝑀𝐴 𝑝, 𝑑, 𝑞 (6)

where 𝑝, 𝑑 and 𝑞 are integers greater than or

equal to zero.

Then, the ARIMA model given in equation (6) consists of the Autoregressive (AR) polynomial part,

Differencing (I) and the Moving Average (MA) polynomial part. Equation (6) is written more formally

as:

𝜙 𝐵 ∇𝑑𝑥𝑡 = 𝜃 𝐵 𝑤𝑡 (6)

The non-seasonal components are represented by AR in equation (7) and MA in equation (8) respectively.

𝐴𝑅: 𝜙 𝐵 = 1 − 𝜙1𝐵 − … − 𝜙𝑝B𝑝 (7)

𝑀𝐴: 𝜃 𝐵 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 − …− 𝜃𝑞B𝑞 (8)

∇𝑑= (1 − B)𝑑 (9)

In developing the model for the 2G voice traffic, the data must be a stationary series, therefore a unit root

test was conducted. The first step was to examine the autocorrelation function (ACF) and the partial

autocorrelation (PACF) plots of the series.

𝐴𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑔 𝑘, 𝜌𝑘 = 𝑦𝑡 − 𝑦 𝑇

𝑡=𝑘+1 (𝑦𝑡−𝑘 − 𝑦𝑡−𝑘)/(𝑇 − 𝑘)

(𝑦𝑡 − 𝑦)2𝑇𝑡=1 /𝑇

(10)


~ 6 ~


𝑤𝑕𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑡−𝑘 = 𝑦𝑡−𝑘/(𝑇 − 𝑘)

𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝐶𝑜𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒(𝑥𝑡 ,𝑥𝑡−2 ∣ 𝑥𝑡−1)

𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑥𝑡 ∣∣ 𝑥𝑡−1 𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒(𝑥𝑡−2 ∣ 𝑥𝑡−1) (11)

The Q-statistic is used as the test statistic for the joint hypothesis,

𝑄 − 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐, 𝑄 = 𝑇 𝜌𝑘2

𝑚

𝑘=1

12

where 𝑇 = sample size and 𝑚 = lag length

Results and Discussions Table 1 represents the summary statistics of the 2G daily voice traffic data, which indicates a high

variation among the observations. It also exhibits asymmetric pattern.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of 2G Daily Voice Traffic

Statistics

699 Samples (Daily)

Mean 69637.99

Median 66932.00

Maximum 105212.0

Minimum 29578.00

Standard Deviation 18311.93

Skewness 0.092445

Kurtosis 1.846818

Jarque-Bera 39.72688


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Time Series Plot of the Data

Figure 1 illustrates the time series plot of the daily voice traffic measurement of 2G network at the BSC

level from 8th August 2011 to 7

th July 2013. There is a regular change in the time plot, which is not

periodic but moves steadily upwards with increasing long run trend. The plot clearly exhibits a general

upward trend of considerable variation in traffic pattern over the period. The 107th day of the research was

remarkably low with a value of 29600 Erlangs and 377th day recording the next low value of 33500

Erlangs. The highest value of 104,000 Erlangs voice traffic was monitored on day 578.

Fig. 1: Time Series Plot of Aggregated 2G Voice Traffic Data

Using equations10, 11 and 12 the ACF, PACF and Q-Statistic values were computed and the results are

shown in Table 2. Even though available literature has shown that Ljung-Box statistic is statistically more

powerful than Q-statistic; in case of the 2G daily voice traffic the results were statistically good for the 25

lags.


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Table 2: ACF and PACF of 2G Daily Voice Traffic for 25 Lags

LAG

ACF PACF Q-STAT PROB.

1 0.967 0.967 657.15 0.000

2 0.955 0.309 1299.2 0.000

3 0.947 0.178 1931.7 0.000

4 0.938 0.063 2552.9 0.000

5 0.934 0.112 3169.2 0.000

6 0.929 0.066 3779.8 0.000

7 0.934 0.228 4398.2 0.000

8 0.925 -0.071 5006.0 0.000

9 0.919 -0.018 5606.2 0.000

10 0.917 0.054 6204.8 0.000

11 0.911 0.018 6797.3 0.000

12 0.906 -0.027 7383.0 0.000

13 0.903 0.045 7965.8 0.000

14 0.903 0.047 8549.7 0.000

15 0.889 -0.189 9116.0 0.000

16 0.882 -0.010 9674.5 0.000

17 0.878 0.022 10229. 0.000

18 0.875 0.050 10781. 0.000

19 0.869 -0.026 11325. 0.000

20 0.865 0.005 11866. 0.000

21 0.867 0.076 12411. 0.000

22 0.860 0.004 12947. 0.000

23 0.856 0.017 13479. 0.000

24 0.854 0.009 14009. 0.000

25 0.853 0.070 14538. 0.000

Fig. 2: ACF Plot of Actual Aggregated 2G BSC Traffic for 620 Lags

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

Series: Daily

LAG

AC

F

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

LAG

PA

CF


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Figure 2 exhibits the Autocorrelation Function (ACF) plot of the actual 2G daily traffic for 620 lags. The

plot shows a strong autocorrelations and this is due to the highly non-stationary data of the 2G traffic.

Fig. 3: PACF Plot of Actual Aggregated 2G BSC Data for 620 Lags

Figure 3 shows a plot of a Partial Autocorrelation Function (PACF) of the 2G traffic for 620 lags. The

ACF and PACF plots of Figure 2 and Figure 3, clearly indicate that the data is non-stationary

Testing for Stationarity of Non-Seasonal and Seasonal Data

The ACF and PACF is not a strong measure for testing non-stationary process as indicated from Figure 2

and Figure 3 respectively. To test for stationarity of the 2G traffic data, KPSS and ZA unit root test were

conducted and the results are shown in Table 3 and Table 4 respectively.

Kwiatkowski-Philips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) Stationarity Test

The KPSS unit root test for the 2G daily voice traffic is shown in Table 3.

Table 3: KPSS Unit Root Test for 2G Aggregated Traffic Time Series in its Level form

Constant Constant + Trend

Test Type Critical

Value

Test

Statistics

Critical

Value

Test Statistics

KPSS 0.01

0.05

0.1

0.739000

0.463000

0.347000

0.01

0.05

0.10

0.216000

0.146000

0.119000

KPSS Test Statistics 2.996823 0.156620

From Table 3, the KPSS test statistic value of 2.996823 is greater than 0.739000, 0.463000 and 0.347000

at 1%, 5% and 10% critical level. Therefore the null hypothesis is rejected at the constant level. In

addition, the test at the constant and trend level failed the stationarity test hence the null hypothesis is

rejected.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

Series: Daily

LAG

AC

F

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.4

0.0

0.4

0.8

LAG

PA

CF


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Zivot-Andrews (ZA) Unit Root Test

The ZA unit root test result for the 2G daily traffic is shown in Table 4. ZA test confirms the existence of

unit root when the constant, trend and constant with trend were tested. The ZA test statistic is greater than

the critical values in absolute terms at the constant, trend and constant with trend. Therefore the series is

not stationary.

Table 4: ZA Unit Root Test for 2G Daily VoiceTraffic Time Series in its Level form

Constant Trend Constant + Trend

Test

Type

Critical

Value

Test

Statistics

Critical

Value

Test

Statistics

Critical

Value

Test

Statistics

ZA 0.01

0.05

0.1

-5.34

-4.93

-4.58

0.01

0.05

0.10

-4.80

-4.42

-4.11

0.01

0.05

0.10

-5.57

-5.08

-4.82

Zivot-Andrew

Test Statistics

-5.901 -5.7786 -7.6937

Probability 5.3E-06 0.0035 5.23E-07

Differencing 2G Daily Voice Traffic

From the ACF plot (Figure 2) and the PACF plot (Figure 3), there is a strong presence of trend in the 2G

daily voice traffic series. Therefore a first non-seasonal differencing is performed to remove trend from

the series by using equation (13)

1 − 𝐵 𝑥𝑡 = 𝑥𝑡 − 𝑥𝑡−1 (13)

where

𝑥𝑡 is the time series 2G daily voice traffic data

at period 𝑡

𝐵 represents backward shift operator (𝐵𝑘𝑥𝑡 = 𝑥𝑡−𝑘)

Figure 4 shows the results of the application of equation 13. The plot exhibits stationarity with constant

variance and mean with time, however this is not enough to confirm stationarity. After performing first

non-seasonal differencing, a couple of tests were done to check if the series is now stationary or not.


~ 11 ~


Table 5 illustrates the test results which indicate that the differenced 2G daily voice traffic is now

stationary at 5% level of significance.

Fig. 4: Plot of the Non-seasonal First Differenced Aggregate 2G BSC Data

Table 5: Unit Root Test for First Differenced 2GAggregated Daily Traffic

Constant Trend Constant +Trend

Test

Type

Critical

Value

Test

statistics

Critical

Value

Test

statistics

Critical

Value

Test

statistics

KPSS 0.4630 0.0715 - - 0.1460 0.0556

ZA -5.34 -17.742 -4.42 -17.403 -5.08 -17.752

The Zivot-Andrews test statistic of 17.74147 in absolute terms for the differenced 2G daily voice traffic is

greater than the critical values of 5.34 at 1%, 4.93 at 5% (shown in Table 5) and 4.58 at 10% level. Hence

the ZA test confirms the non-existence of unit root, therefore the series is stationary. The probability

value of 0.001251 calculated from a standard t-distribution is smaller than the p-value of 0.05 therefore

the null hypothesis of the series having a unit root is rejected. From Table 5, the Zivot-Andrews test

statistic indicates that the differenced series is stationary. From Fig 5 and Fig 6, the ACF and PACF spike

at lag 1 and the remaining spikes are not significant.


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Fig. 5: ACF Plot of Non-seasonal First Differenced Daily 2G Voice Traffic for 600 Lags

Fig. 6: PACF Plot of Non-seasonal First Differenced Daily 2G Voice Traffic for 600 Lags

Testing for Seasonality in the 2G Daily Voice Traffic

Fig. 7: Plot of the First Seasonally Differenced Daily 2G Voice Traffic

0 100 200 300 400 500 600-0

.20

.20

.61

.0

Series: datadiff1

LAG

AC

F

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.2

0.2

0.6

1.0

LAG

PA

CF

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.2

0.2

0.6

1.0

Series: datadiff1

LAG

AC

F

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.2

0.2

0.6

1.0

LAG

PA

CF

First Seasonally Differenced 2G Daily data

Time(days)

Tra

ffic

in E

rla

ng

100 200 300 400 500 600

-20

00

00

20

00

04

00

00


~ 13 ~


Fig. 8: ACF Plot of First Seasonally Differenced Daily 2G Voice Traffic for 600 Lags

Fig. 9: PACF Plot of First Seasonally Differenced Daily 2G Voice Traffic for 600 Lags

The sample ACF and PACF plots with 95% confidence level for the seasonally differenced 2G daily

voice traffic for 600 lags are shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9. Figure 9 shows a significant spike which

dies down after the second lag. From Figure 9 there is no seasonal pattern in the plot.

Inspecting the ACF (Figure 5) and the PACF (Figure 6) of the differenced data, the order of the model

ARIMA (p, d, q) was determined as p=1, d=1 and q=1.

Putting p = d = q = 1 into equation (6) and equation (7) gives

𝐴𝑅𝐼𝑀𝐴 1, 1, 1 (14)

and

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 (1 − 𝐵)𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 𝜔𝑡 (15)

In order to model the 2G daily voice traffic, the same methodology was implemented to obtain the

following models:

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 − 𝜙2𝐵2 − 𝜙3𝐵

3 𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 − 𝜃2𝐵2 𝜔𝑡 (16)

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 − 𝜙2𝐵2 𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 − 𝜃2𝐵

2 𝜔𝑡 (17)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

Series: datadiff2

LAGA

CF

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

LAG

PA

CF

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

Series: datadiff2

LAG

AC

F

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

LAG

PA

CF


~ 14 ~


1 − 𝜙1𝐵 𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 − 𝜃2𝐵2 𝜔𝑡 (18)

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 − 𝜙2𝐵2 𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 𝜔𝑡 (19)

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 − 𝜙2𝐵2 − 𝜙3𝐵

3 𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 𝜔𝑡 (20)

Table 6: AIC, AICc and BIC of the Suggested ARIMA Models

Model AIC AICc BIC

ARIMA(1,1,1) 17.54423 17.54718 16.56376

ARIMA(3,1,2) 17.54468 17.54777 16.58373

ARIMA(2,1,1) 17.54599 17.54898 16.57203

ARIMA(1,1,2) 17.54608 17.54907 16.57212

ARIMA(2,1,2) 17.54885 17.55189 16.6814

From Table 6, ARIMA(1,1,1), ARIMA (3,1,2), ARIMA(2,1,1) and ARIMA(1,1,2) are selected as the

model with the minimum information criteria.

Parameter Estimation

Using the maximum likelihood estimation method, the parameters 𝜙 and 𝜃 of the ARIMA models were

estimated and the results are shown in Table 7, Table 8, Table 9 and Table 10 respectively.

From Table 7, AR(3) and MA(1) are not statistically significant since the t-values are less than 2. Hence

the ARIMA(3,1,2) model is not accepted.

Table 7: Parameter Estimation for ARIMA (3,1,2) Model

Variable Estimates Std.

Error

t-value Sig.

if t ≥ |2|

AR(1) 𝜙1 -0.4236 0.1053 -4.023 Sig.

AR(2) 𝜙2 0.2881 0.0708 4.069 Sig.

AR(3) 𝜙3 0.0810 0.0477 1.698 Not Sig.

MA(1) 𝜃1 -0.0696 0.0980 -0.710 Not Sig.

MA(2) 𝜃2 -0.6782 0.0787 -8.6175 Sig.


~ 15 ~




Error

t-value Sig. if

t ≥ |2|

AR(1) 𝜙1 0.3155 0.0497 63.48089 Sig.

AR(2) 𝜙2 0.0394 0.0448 0.879464 Not

Sig.

MA(1) 𝜃1 -0.8609 0.0316 -27.24367 Sig.

ARIMA(2,1,1) model is not statistically significant. From Table 8, the t-value of AR(2) is less than 2.



Error

t-value Sig. if t

≥ |2|

AR(1) 𝜙1 0.3951 0.1463 2.701 Sig.

MA(1) 𝜃1 -0.8948 0.1530 -5.848 Sig.

MA(2) 𝜃2 0.0419 0.1124 0.3728 Not

Sig.

From Table 9,ARIMA(1,1,2) model is not statistically significant.



Error

t-value Sig. if t

≥ |2|

AR(1) 𝜙1 0.3085 0.050 6.17 Sig

MA(1) 𝜃1 -0.8455 0.028 -29.77 Sig

From Table 10, ARIMA (1,1,1) is statistically significant and is therefore selected as the best model.


~ 16 ~


Diagnostic Checking of the Selected ARIMA (1,1,1) Model

Fig. 10: Plot of the Standardized Residuals of ARIMA(1,1,1) Model

Fig. 11: Normal Probability Plot of ARIMA(1,1,1) Model

The standardized residual plot in Figure 10 indicates no clear pattern and resembles an i.i.d sequence of

mean zero with some few outliers.

Fig. 11 is the normal Q-Q plot of the standardized residuals. The residuals seem to be normally

distributed.

Forecasting with ARIMA (1,1,1) Model

Figure 12 shows the plot of actual 2G voice data in blue dashed line and the forecast in brown dashed

line. From the plot ARIMA (1,1,1) predicted well with minor deviations.

Standardized Residuals

Time

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-6

-2

26

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

-0.2

0.2

0.6

ACF of Residuals

LAG

AC

F

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

-6

-2

26

Normal Q-Q Plot of Std Residuals

Theoretical Quantiles

Sam

ple

Quantile

s

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

0.0

0.4

0.8

p values for Ljung-Box statistic

lag

p v

alu

e

Standardized Residuals

Time

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

-6-2

26

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

-0.2

0.2

0.6

ACF of Residuals

LAG

AC

F

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

-6-2

26

Normal Q-Q Plot of Std Residuals

Theoretical Quantiles

Sam

ple

Qua

ntile

s

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

0.0

0.4

0.8

p values for Ljung-Box statistic

lag

p va

lue


~ 17 ~


Fig. 12: Daily 2G Actual and Predicted Voice Traffic in Erlangs

Determining the Structural Breaks in the Data Using Zivot-Andrew Tests

Figure 13, Figure 14 and Figure 15, demonstrate the different break points on different days of the

observation.

Fig. 13: Plot of Zivot-Andrews Breakpoint for Constant Level at 380

From figure 13 the structural break point is at 380th day when a Zivot-Andrews unit root test was

conducted on 700 observations.

020000400006000080000

100000120000

1

79

15

7

23

5

31

3

39

1

46

9

54

7

62

5

Vo

ice

Traf

fic

(Erl

angs

)

Time (Days)

Daily 2G Voice Traffic Measurement

Actual

ARIMA


~ 18 ~


Fig. 14: Plot of Zivot-Andrews Breakpoint for Trend Level

For the trend level the breakpoint was detected on day 582 as shown in figure 14.

Fig. 15: Plot of Zivot-Andrews Breakpoint for Constant and Trend Level

The 519th day was detected to have been the breakpoint for the constant and trend analysis. Figure 15

illustrates.

Conclusion In this study, the structural breaks in a telecommunication network have been estimated by using 2G daily

voice traffic from the Base Station Controller of an operator. The determination of the breakpoints will be

a major factor in planning for new networks.


~ 19 ~


This study has proposed time series model, ARIMA (1, 1, 1) also written as

1 − 𝜙1𝐵 (1 − 𝐵)𝑥𝑡 = 1 − 𝜃1𝐵 𝜔𝑡

as the best to predict 2G daily voice traffic. The results agree with earlier findings of studies by

KuanHoong, Tan and YikKeong (2012), Wang et al. (2015), Suarez, Parra and Diaz (2009).

References

Abdullah, I., Daw, D. A. A. and Seman, K. (2015), Traffic Forecasting and Planning of WiMAX under Multiple Priority Using

Fuzzy Time Series Analysis, Jourrnal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp.68-74.

Byrne, J. P. andPerman, R. (2007), Unit Roots and Structural Breaks: A Survey of the Literature, In Rao, B. B. (ed),

Cointegration for the Applied Economist, 2nd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 129-142.

Costello, S. (2015), Operators and Vendors Predict Long Life for 2G, Mobile World Live.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/top-three/operators-vendors-forecast-long-life-2g/ [Accessed: 19 April,

2017]

Diaz-Aviles, E., Pinelli, F., Lynch, K., Nabi, Z., Gkoufas, Y., Bouillet, E. and Calabrese, F. (2015), Towards Real-time Customer

Experience Prediction for Telecommunication Operators, IEEE International Conference on Big Data, pp. 1063-1072.

Du, K. and Swamy, M. (2010), Wireless Communication Systems: From RF Subsystems to 4G Enabling Technologies,

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-985

Eberspächer, J., Vögel, H.-J. and Bettstetter, C. (2001), GSM Switching, Services and Protocols, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons

Ltd, Chichester, New York, pp. 1-339.

Gowrishankar, S. (2008), A Time Series Modelling and Prediction of Wireless Network Traffic, Georgian Electronic Scientific

Journal: Computer Science and Telecommunications, Vol. 2, No. 16, pp. 40-52.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2014), The World in 2014: ICT Facts and Figures, Technical Report.

KuanHoong, P., Tan, I. K. T. and YikKeong, C. (2012), Bit Torrent Network Traffic Forecasting with ARMA, International

Journal of Computer Networks & Communications, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 143-156.

Moussas, V. C., Daglis, M. and Kolega, E. (2005), Network Traffic Modelling and Prediction Using Multiplicative Seasonal

ARIMA Models, 1st International Conference on Experiments/Process/System/ Modelling/Simulation/Optimisation, 1st IC-

EpsMsO, 6-9 July, Athens, pp. 1-7.

Nilsson, I. (2009), Unit Root Tests and Structural Breaks in the Swedish Electricity Price, Unpublished MSc Thesis Report,

Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, pp.1-42.

Oduro-Gyimah, F. K. (2011), Time Series Analysis of Microwave Transmission on the Yeji-Salaga Line-of-Sight

Telecommunication Link, Unpublished MSc Thesis Report, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,

Kumasi, pp. 1-100.

Perron, P. (1989), The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis, Econometrica, Vol. 57, No. 6, pp. 1361-

1401.

Snow, A. P., Chen, Y. and Weckman, G. R. (2012), The Impact of Multi-Outage Episodes on Large-Scale Wireless Voice

Networks, International Journal on Advances in Networks and Services, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 174-188.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/top-three/operators-vendors-forecast-long-life-2g/


~ 20 ~


Suarez, C. H. H., Parra, O. J. S. and Diaz, A. E. (2009), An ARIMA Model for Forecasting Wi-Fi Data Network Traffic,

RevistaIngenieraInvestigacion, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp.65-69.

Wang, M., Wang, Y., Wang, X. and Wei, Z. (2015), Forecast and Analyse the Telecom Income based on ARIMA Model,

Cybernetics and Systematics Journal, Vol. 9, pp. 2559-2564.

Zivot, E. and Andrews, W. K. (1992), Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis,

Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Vol. 10, No. 10, pp. 251-270.


~ 21 ~


ADULT LEARNING AND SMALL-SCALE BUSINESS PROMOTION IN

THE COMMUNITIES: PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

Isaac Kofi Biney

University of Ghana, Legon

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Abstract This paper examines prospects of adult learning and small business promotion in the communities; ascertaining

challenges and strategies to address them. It is a library study that probes into small business generation of

employment opportunities in the communities. The entrepreneurial capabilities of community members in small

businesses serve as key to prosperity in the communities. Small businesses registered by Internal Revenue Service

kept increasing from 46,961; 51,749 and 52,575 as at 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. However, enterprising

community members need knowledge, skills and values of modern-day business plans, funding sources, market

outlets and management skills. Many small-businesses wind up before the end of their first year. Provision of adult

learning skills through lifelong learning process is key to success. Funding through group-lending approach is an

important option. Government and financial institutions should resource entrepreneurs. Providing advisory services

to small business entrepreneurs to manage businesses is another important strategy. These steps, when properly

considered, will help reduce poverty and make communities sustainable in addressing joblessness and hopelessness

facing community members.

Keywords: Adult learning, small-scale business, entrepreneurship, business plans, human capital development,

community members

Introduction

he 21st –century is described as the „era of entrepreneurship,‟ and it seems appropriate largely

because globally, every economy is putting in place plans to accelerate growth of small-scale

businesses (SSBs) as a strategy to make life in the communities a thriving one. The questions that arise

are: What at all constitutes a small business in Ghana? Does it make any contribution to the growth of the

economy? If yes, why now? What does adult learning have to do with the growth of small businesses? To

Lind (2012), there is no universally agreed –on definition of a small business. This is because „size‟ is

relative. In terms of personnel, the “Ghana Statistical Service (cited in Biney, 2009) considers businesses

with less than 10 employees as small-scale enterprises” (p. 85). Abor and Quartey (2010) assert that

“micro, small medium enterprises (MSMEs)contribute about 70 percent to Ghana‟s gross domestic

product (GDP) and hold about 92 percent share of businesses in Ghana” (p. 218). To them,“there is a

growing recognition of the important role small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play in economic

development. Small business is seen as efficient and a prolific job creators, the seeds of big businesses

T

mailto:[email protected]%20/%[email protected]


~ 22 ~


and the fuel of national economic engine” (Abor and Quartey, 2010, p. 218). Ghana, as a developing

country, is confronted with two major challenges– unemployment and poverty. According to the World

Bank, “Ghana needs to create between six to seven million new jobs by 2030 to be able to absorb the

people who enter the world of work” (Baafi & Acheampong, 2014, p. 69). The paradox, however, is that

the youth of Ghana in particular, and those of sub-Saharan Africa region in general, which is about (33%)

of the population, are largely unemployed. Frimpong (2016, p.10) opines that “about 88 million young

women and men worldwide are also unemployed, [hence generating employment opportunities through

adult learning, becomes important]”.

Mulu-Mutuku (2001) asserts that “the development of small enterprises has been identified as one way of

alleviating poverty in Kenya” (p.142). It is not surprising that The European Parliament in a 2006

Recommendation, recognised the importance of taking initiative and entrepreneurship as key

competences for lifelong learning, and has since supported entrepreneurship education in several

resolutions (Debyser, 2013). Ghana, as a country, has no excuse but to embrace the promotion of small

businesses because the public sector lacks the capacity to offer more employment opportunities than what

the private sector could offer the unemployed adults in the communities. There is also a high

despondency and hopelessness in the communities because of mass extensive poverty facing the adults‟

population. Designing lifelong learning programmes for adult community members is a laudable strategy

to be adopted. A study conducted among adult learners in Stirling (Stirling Council, 2017) to identify the

wider impact of adult learning in their home, work and in their communities revealed that learning

provides new opportunities, including starting a business. Adult learning programmes, including skills in

starting a business, will make the community members acquire some creative business management skills

based on their own interests. Skills, including initiating small businesses in snail-rearing, mushroom

farming, block moulding, mobile phone repairs, barbering, hair-dressing and dress-making could be

provided to the enterprising men and women in the communities.

The good news is that some community members in Ghana are showing interest, however small, in

launching small businesses in their vicinities. Accessing funds from the banks and non-bank financial

institutions, removal of nuisance taxes, and steady lowering of interest rates are currently being

experienced in Ghana. In spite of the exciting business climate being experienced today in Ghana, many

of the enterprising community members seem to lack appropriate knowledge, skills, values and

understanding of modern-day business plans, ability to identify credible funding sources and marketing

outlets, and management skills. Hence many of the small businesses wind up before the end of their first

year. This paper, therefore, examines adult learning and human capital development, and adult learning


~ 23 ~


and small business promotion in the communities. It establishes that whilst it is significant to find some

prospects in Ghana for building the mindset of community members to develop enterprising spirit in their

communities, it is equally important to ensure that the challenges involved in managing small businesses

are identified, and the appropriate strategies put in place to surmount them.

Adult Learning and Human Capital Development

Singh (1999) made us understand that “the education of adults contributes to their self-reliance and

personal autonomy in exercising basic rights, and to increased productivity and labour efficiency” (p. 2).

Adult learning, to the practitioners, is a “human development and productive investment”, and must be

utilised as such (Singh, 1999, p. 3). It was then not surprising that Singh (1999) opines that the “major

goals of adult learning now include preventing and combating unemployment, promoting a smooth

transition from school to work, social inclusion and social cohesion” (p. 3). The term “human capital”

first coined by Adam Smith in 1776 was taken further by Theodor Schulz and Gary Becker (Schuller &

Field, 1998). It states that “investment in education and skill formation is as significant for economic

growth as investment in machines and equipment” (UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning, 2010, p.

22). Applying econometric analyses in measuring human capital, however, has received fierce criticisms.

Becker (1964, cited in Sernau, 2009) maintains that “just as investments in physical capital (say, a more

technologically advanced factory) would increase productivity and efficiency, so, too, education could be

seen as an investment in human capital, increasing the productivity and efficiency of humans” (p. 109).

Sen (1999) brought a new twist to human capital concept discourse by considering the capability

approach to development. To Sen, the “enhancement of human freedom is both the main and the means

of development, thus, people have to be seen to be actively involved in shaping their own destinies, rather

than the passive recipients of development programme” (Sen, 1999 cited in Matsuura, 2010, p. 23).

Lifelong learning (which adult learning is perceived), has economic benefits (Field, 2012). Field argues

that “economic factors such as income and employment play an important part in lifelong learning. The

direct economic effects of lifelong learning potentially include impacts on earnings, on employability, and

on the wider economy. And since steady employment tends to have further effects on health, well-being

and sociability, it follows that the economic effects of learning have indirect outcomes” (Field, 2012, p.

2). Dweck (2006) asserts that “people have more capacity for lifelong learning than they ever thought” (p.

5). She adds, “experience, training and personal effort take us the rest of the way” (p. 5).

One can then argue that adult learning is an important field or discipline of empowering communities, not

only to strive for social and political freedoms, but economic freedom as well. Thus, getting adult

population in the communities‟ employable skills, knowledge and values in financial literacy, planning


~ 24 ~


and management in businesses through learning, appears a good strategy to be pursued. Currently in

Ghana, small and micro-size businesses engage 71.4 percent of the total workforce as against the 16.6

percent the large-size businesses are able to engage (GSS, 2017). It is an accepted view that educated

people can do more and do it better and contribute more to national development, and the researcher finds

this assertion significant because Roe et al. (1990, cited in Dougherty & Hammack, 1990) observe that

the nineteenth and twentieth century‟s saw the world‟s work force become less “labour intensive” and

more “brain intensive.” In societies, as observed by Wadhwa (2000) “where there are few paid jobs and

many adults lack the basic education to master them, the simplest acquisition of job skills, whether called

education or training may not matter much; what really matters is ensuring the community members

secure relevant skills to create job avenues for themselves” (p. 121). It means therefore that encouraging

and motivating the adult population to engage in functional learning endeavours, including small business

creation and management, could serve as a strategy of engendering sustainable development in our

communities. The acquisition of financial literacy, planning and managerial skills are critical for any

enterprising community members desiring a better quality of life. Useem (1998) best puts it in this way:

We have to transform everybody from a bureaucrat to an owner, and an owner, has to be

concerned with everything in the business. Success and rewards will go to the managerial

generalist (p. xi).

Succeeding in this direction, however, requires that the community members engage actively in adult

learning endeavours. The effort being made to drive small business mindset in Ghana, and the success and

growth of small business activities in the communities depends to some extent, on the degree of active

and willing participation of the community members themselves in such ventures (Biney, 2009). The

participation of the community members to improve their conditions of living through the investment of

their energies, and all other resources either individually or co-operatively, is an activity worth pursuing.

Investing in small business activities by community members with as much reliance as possible on their

own initiatives demonstrates firstly, the level of ingenuity of the community members and secondly, the

degree of business acumen possessed by some community members (McConnell and Bidwell, 1990).

This observation is significant to the extent that the pivot of life of every man or woman is a job, and if

community members are to have any degree of social security, they must develop a self-reliant spirit and

also find a place for productive work in their own communities.


~ 25 ~


Adult Learning and Small Business Promotion

Mitchell (1998) opines that in the early 1900s, Edward L. Thorndike, a pioneer of educational

psychology, did some of the most definitive work on learning. He concluded that there are three laws that

govern how we learn, and comprise laws of readiness, effect and exercise. Simply put, “the law of

readiness means we only learn when we are ready to learn. Readiness includes seeing a need to learn,

feeling a desire to learn, being interested in the subject, and having sufficient skills to both comprehend

and utilise the new information” (Mitchell, 1998, p. 7). In this era of advancement in information

communication technology (ICT), in which we are unrelentingly producing new technologies like

electronic tablets and smart phones, it is difficult to progress without learning one new thing or the other,

however old we are. Engaging in learning for employment generation such as building of skills in small

businesses, is a kind of learning endeavour that seems to attract as many potential enterprising community

members as possible. Building commitment and motivation of community members to take to acquiring

knowledge and skills in becoming enterprising to create jobs is the way to go as a country. To Newton

(2006), small businesses in Australia have used adult community training programmes to build the

capacity of small businesses to address the needs of their clienteles. It will therefore not be far-fetched to

admit that adult learning today, seeks to engender preparation of learners for improved competences in

knowledge, skills, values which enable them keep body and soul together in a satisfactory manner. To

keep body and soul together in a satisfactory manner requires that community members engage in

productive activities, including setting up of small-scale businesses, to comprehensively address issues of

poverty and unemployment in their respectively communities. Community members need to make time,

be ready to learn and invest their investible resources and energies in small businesses because Abor and

Quartey (2010) opine that SMEs generate “about 85 percent of manufacturing employment in Ghana” (p.

218).

The law of effect, according to Mitchell (1998), states that “nothing succeeds like success. This law

points out that the more success we feel in learning, the more excited we get about learning. We need to

gain pleasure from our learning, and the successful performance of a formerly difficult task, is one‟s

greatest pleasures” (p. 6). The law of exercise, in essence means, “Practice makes perfect”. This means

that hands-on drill is necessary. It also means that the more personally we are involved in learning, that is,

the harder we work at it, the more we learn” (p. 6). Adult learning in small business creation is a non-

formal education (NFE) activity. It has to do with hands-on experience, sharing of skills and knowledge

or changing attitudes. At the root of non-formal education, according to Peace Corps (2004), is a

“participatory, grassroots approach to helping people to address their own needs” (p. 1). In this context,

however, creating jobs to address unemployment and poverty confronting community members is a


~ 26 ~


laudable initiative to be undertaken by innovative community members. In any event, NFE offers

community members learning opportunities that are meaningful and relevant – leading to skills such as

entrepreneurship and small business development that enhances lifelong learning (Nafukhoet al., 2005).

NFE goes to the heart of what it means to be an enterprising business-people that have a “respect for local

knowledge, a faith in the wisdom of the people, and a humble awareness of one‟s own strengths, gifts,

and challenges” (Peace Corps, 2004, p. 1). NFE provides a powerful philosophy, and an effective

approach for identifying and creating learning opportunities, and facilitating change in a community

(Peace Corps, 2004). NFE is thus an important tool for enterprising individuals to undertake business

ventures. It also means that such enterprising people should be interested in the kind of venture they enter

into, such that they will remain committed to their businesses, even in the midst of hurdles that come their

way.

A study by the Kauffman Foundation (cited in Scarborough, 2012) shows that “the level of

entrepreneurial activity among people of age 55 to 64 actually is higher than that of those of age 20 to 34

a pattern that has been held for the last decade” (p. 27). Some small business operators commence

business ventures in their adulthood stage, signifying that engaging in adult learning programmes is a best

strategy to become enterprising in your own right. „Small business‟ to Lind (2012) is an ill-defined

concept, not least because „small‟ is a relative term. He asserts that a small business in a Western country

may be regarded as a medium-size or even a big business in a developing country. “A small business can

be anything from one person bicycle repair shop in a street in Hanoi to a high-tech manufacturing

company in Stockholm with around 50 employees” (Lind, 2012, p. 4). However, Cordeiro (2007) asserts

that it is appropriate to perceive a small business as possessing features, including a small share of the

market; employs a small number of people, and independently owned. He adds that the management and

control are in the hands of the owner. More so, management is personalised rather than formal, and

finally, it is not part of a large group.

Osei et al. (1993) define small-scale enterprises in Ghana using employment cut-off point of 30

employees to indicate Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). They separated SMEs into micro business

employing less than 6 people, very small employing between 6-9 people; and small business employing

between 10-29 employees. It is safe to infer from the various definitions aforementioned that most small

scale enterprises employ not more than 30 employees if the criterion of the number of employees the

business has is the yardstick used. It is evident that the number of small businesses registered by the

Statistics Unit of the then Internal Revenue Service in the communities kept increasing from 46,961;

51,749 and 52,575 as at 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively (Biney, 2009). Small businesses are


~ 27 ~


widespread, and can be found in all the three major sectors of the economy- agriculture, industry and

service. Success in small enterprise promotion, however, requires three essential components, comprising

technical, managerial and entrepreneurial skills. Technical skills, as observed by Mulu-Mutaku (2001),

are specific to a particular occupation which includes knowledge of the particular business one is

planning to establish. Mulu-Mutuku (2001) observes that “possession of technical skills can facilitate

entry into self-employment, at least on a very small scale, but as the business develops, these skills

necessarily must be built upon” (p. 143). Drucker (cited in Knowles, 2003) opines that entrepreneurs,

[which is equated to small business operators], tend to defy stereotyping and broad-brush labeling; such

that people of diverse personalities and temperaments perform well in entrepreneurial challenges. Small

business entrepreneurs, to Abor and Quartey (2010), “are the fuel of the private enterprise system. They

provide the competitive zeal; create jobs, new ventures, and opportunities for others” (p. 218). The

activities of small businesses, especially in the rural areas, will largely help improve the economic growth

and social fibre, in the respective communities.

On developing learning services to small businesses in Australia to address their needs, Newton (2006)

observes that an explicit link be made between business needs and human resource needs if small

businesses are to see training as a valuable business tool. Small business initiatives in the local

communities, be it production of tangible goods or services, require the business-people to exhibit

important features such as plain hard working spirit, vision, passion, independent thinking, goal-oriented,

moderate risk taking, creativity, and also serve as change agents in the communities. Ryan and Hiduke

(2006) observe that new start-ups are the marriage of money and hard work. Endurance, perseverance and

persistence are critical requirements of business operators to succeed in businesses, whether engaged in

bottled and sachet water production, food joint, fashion designing and barbering. Small business operators

are soldiers and heroes of any country's economic advancement (Nakhaie & Nakhaie, 2011). There are a

number of government institutions in Ghana, including agricultural extension centres, non-governmental

organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) and faith-based organisations (FBOs)

providing business skills to community members to make them relevant in their communities. Such

initiatives are significant because enterprises undertaken by adventurous people can largely change the

phase of local economies to become thriving, and the image of the community members‟ profoundly

changed for better.

Prospects of Building Enterprising Mindset of Community Members

Developing and building an enterprising mindset among community members to create jobs in their

communities could largely make as many people as possible become employed and productive in their


~ 28 ~


own vicinity. The New Patriotic Party Government, in its first budget reading in March 2017, instituted

business-friendly policies and tax credits as well as incentive packages to make cost of doing business

become cheaper, and thus set the stage for job creation in Ghana. It is thus, important to motivate and

encourage enterprising people to initiate, and create jobs for themselves and many others in the

communities. For instance, there has been a reduction of electricity tariff charges as revealed by Public

Utility Regulatory Commission. Aside reduction in electricity charges, there are a number of good motor-

able roads and internal air flight functioning. There is also a large pool of well-trained graduates

searching for jobs in Ghana. These initiatives could impact positively on reducing the cost of production

or services rendered by business-people in the communities. There are, however, huge resources in the

communities which require values to be added to them, yet many of the people do not have the

entrepreneurial eye to recognise unrecognised needs, and exploit them to the benefit of all the citizenry. It

also appears that many people feel unfulfilled and want to be happier but do not know how to become

fulfilled; hence developing a more enterprising mindset may largely help them. This should be expected

because “enterprise and entrepreneurship are trans-disciplinary, with a strong connection to issues of

employability, innovation, knowledge transfer, commercialisation, and intellectual property” (Quality

Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 2012, p. 24).

What then is an enterprising mindset? To Jones (2015), it is “about having a way of thinking which sees

opportunities rather than barriers, that sees possibilities rather than failure, making one do something to

make a difference rather than sit and complain about the problems” (p. 2). Ball (1995) aptly describes an

enterprising person in this apt way:

“An enterprising individual has a positive, flexible and adaptable disposition towards

change, seeing it as normal, and as an opportunity rather than a problem. He/she has a

security born of self-confidence when dealing with risks, difficulty and the unknown.

He/she has the capacity to initiate creative ideas, develop them, and see them through

into action in a determined manner. He/she is able, even anxious, to take responsibility

and is an effective communicator, negotiator, influencer, planner and organiser. He/she

is active, confident and purposeful, not passive, uncertain and dependent” (Ball, 1995

cited in Cordeiro, 2007, p. 77).

An enterprising mindset can be beneficial in many situations. The researcher, however, links it to business

start-ups and making money, and making the communities‟ better place to live. To Jones (2015), people

with enterprising mindset usually have “high need for self-fulfillment, passion to create something so that


~ 29 ~


others benefit, desire to make their idea become reality (even when things get in the way), and are self-

motivated. She adds that people with enterprising mindset do not only see the benefit of building

relationships, but also have self-belief, are resourceful and always want other people to have good

experience” (p. 2).

It thus appears to the researcher that being a small business owner is about having the mindset

enumerated above. It also requires the budding entrepreneur to be willing to take some elements of

informed risk. Such risk could either be money or your reputation, in order to develop a big idea, and also

nurture and expand your business. It is possible to have an enterprising mindset yet one should learn to

organise him/herself very well so as to make a headway in his/her business endeavours. Murphy (2010)

however admits that it is not everyone with an enterprising mindset who wants to or is able to do it for

himself as his own boss. One can then argue that some people may have an enterprising mindset, yet not

everyone with such a precious quality, thus mindset, will choose to become self-employed. Jones (2015)

observes that even as we strive to create businesses for ourselves, we need to understand that the people

we employ to work with, may have a mindset which can help us grow our business if only we understand

how to value them, and support them appropriately. The question of whether entrepreneurs are born or

made frequently comes up, but from all the studies conducted on this puzzling question, the conclusion

arrived at has always been that entrepreneurs can be made. It means, therefore that through adult learning,

people with diverse personalities and temperaments perform well in their entrepreneurial challenges.

Nevertheless, if generalisation must be made, as observed by Knowles (2003) and Jones (2015), one can

say that most of the entrepreneurs possess critical skills-set, including high levels of intellect,

determination, drive or passion to get something done, ability to calculate and take risk and being good

communicator. They add that entrepreneurs have high levels of emotional intelligence, are willing to

make decisions quickly, and are also people person. They finally, add that entrepreneurs are liked by

people, and also possess the ability to connect with people.

One can argue that it is not just about possessing all the skills that matter, but a combination of them will

aid people develop for themselves enterprising mindset to create, and own their businesses. It has to be

added that some of the enumerated skills and ways of thinking creatively can be learnt through attending

short workshops, seminars, symposia among others. Murphy (2010) opines that “some people seem to

naturally have a combination of these skills from a very early stage. It is probably true that for many, they

have some of the skills and mindset from birth or early in their lives, but other elements are learnt along

the way from experience and a determination to improve and become the whole person” (p. 33). It is on

the basis of these that adult learning becomes significant when it comes to building an entrepreneurial


~ 30 ~


mindset and creating a venture for oneself. This is because, the reservoir of experience adult learners

brings to managing their businesses seems to provide them with some kind of urge over that of the youth

who have not had that vast, rich, diverse and varied life experiences. Therefore, enhancing the capacity of

the adult population in the communities to generate better ideas and the skills to initiate and create

businesses for themselves is a laudable initiative to undertake. Jones (2015) opines that:

“if you want team members to have an enterprising mindset it stands to reason that by

encouraging and supporting any of the skills they have naturally, and encouraging them

to develop others, you could help them become more entrepreneurial in their thinking

and ways of working” (p. 2).

Building enterprising mindset among community members also requires that they are taught critical

thinking and awareness strategies to become balanced in their operations. For example, providing

budding entrepreneurs‟ in our communities accounting, organisation and book-keeping skills would make

them remain focused on their work. As observed by Cordeiro (2007), thinking of new ways of thinking

described as „convergent thinking,‟ and the other called „divergent thinking‟ should be fostered among

business-people. Simply put, successful business-people learn to acquire super-abundance of creative

responses to problems and also become incredible organisers in their businesses (Cordeiro, 2007). It thus

requires that business-people live up to responding to constantly changing demands and challenges in the

business lines they choose for themselves. After all, a lot of thinking arises from problems that emerge in

the day-to-day course of business activity, as well as from looking for new marketing ideas (Cordeiro,

2007).

To Cordeiro (2007), creativity which has to do with thinking that results in new ways of solving problems

must necessarily be a critical part of fostering enterprising mindset of business-people. This is because

creativity happens very often in everyday life and business owners need to take notice of that. But what

conditions actually foster creativity in business-people in our communities? Baron (1992) offered five

conditions, including developing a broad rich knowledge base, fostering independence, encouraging the

use of analogies, encouraging curiosity, and finally, encouraging positive feelings in people. Baron (1992)

asserts that studies show that “people are three times as likely to be creative when feeling positive than

when feeling neutral or negative” (p. 5). Hence the adult populations in our communities are to be

continuously encouraged and motivated to invest their investible resources, time, intellects and energies

in creating small businesses through lifelong learning to make our communities thriving and vibrant.


~ 31 ~


Challenges in Managing Small Businesses in the Communities

Abor and Quartey (2010) observe that lack of management skills, training, and finance are major

challenges that confront small business operators in Ghana. Indeed, Abor and Quartey (2010) opine that

“lack of managerial know-how places significant constraints on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

development, even though SMEs tend to attract motivated managers; they can hardly compete with larger

firms” (p. 224). They add that “the scarcity of management talent, prevalent in most countries in the

region, [including Ghana], has a magnified impact on SMEs” (p. 224). Galambos and Abrahamson (2002)

found lack of managerial talent and capital as two major challenges facing even some large organisations

for successfully managing their enterprises. Todaro (1997, 2009) asserts that “commercial banks [in

Ghana, in particular] are not structured to handle small loan requirements with no collateral, and are

therefore unwilling to finance small enterprises, especially in the informal sector” (p. 59). Lack of access

“to credit is a serious problem, particularly for women” (cited in Cordeiro, 2007, p. 52). Bhide (2011) best

captures it in this way:

“Of the hundreds of thousands of business ventures that entrepreneurs launch every year,

many never get off the ground. Others fizzle after spectacular rocket starts” (p. 35).

The assertion above vividly illustrates the difficult nature of lack of credit, or finance as one major

challenge that confronts almost all shapes of businesses, but serious with that of small businesses.

Collateral is required before credit is offered but most small businesses do not have such collaterals to

enable them solicit credit to fund their businesses. Some small business operators commence their

businesses from their own savings or funds provided by the family. Such funds are usually small in sum,

making it difficult, sometimes, to expand their businesses. The reason being that the family members

depend on the business people for financial support as observed by Iguisi (2005) in a small business study

conducted in Nigeria.

It should be noted that a large number of small enterprises operated by business people experience failure

essentially due to poor planning and management. Indeed, some business people do not even plan at all,

let alone undertake market research to inform the products or services they offer to the clienteles. To

Schermerhorn (2005), it is a combination of factors, including high cost of capital, lack of experience,

lack of expertise, poor financial control as well as insufficient commitment that leads to business failure.

Cost of capital has been a major challenge to small business operators. Paying interest rate of between

26% - 35% is difficult for start-ups to content with.


~ 32 ~


Archer and Newman (2003) revealed two main reasons for failure of small businesses in developing

countries as firstly, “not enough attention is paid to the macro-environment, and secondly, micro-credit

participants are not supported within a wider learning process with skills for business accounting and

record keeping” (p. 12). This is where the connection of adult learning to small business promotion in the

communities becomes significant. Active engagement of enterprising people in acquiring appropriate

business knowledge and skills, values and attitudes in small business management is particularly

important in Ghana. There is a lot of conservatism in the communities. The older people, more often than

not, appear skeptical accepting new ways of life and new ideas emanating from the young adults as far as

launching their brand of businesses are concerned. The simple truth is that today‟s social-media-savvy-

learners are full of creative entrepreneurial activities. Often the older people, according to Cordeiro,

(2007), “feel threatened by young people when they launch new music and new fashions in clothes and

hairstyles. Some adults get a bit resentful when young people take leadership roles and try to push society

in new directions through their enterprising endeavours” (p. 74).

We also “live in an unequal society where the wealth is owned disproportionately by a few people and

technocrats who serve them” (Cordeiro, 2007, p. 94). It can then be argued that such few people seem to

control the resources for their own ends. It thus becomes difficult to get access to money, land and

technology to power small businesses that adventurous people initiate and establish in our communities.

The reality is that there are a number of opportunities for enterprising adults to launch new businesses

through enterprise schemes, but many of these businesses go bankrupt very quickly because they do not

secure the required support due to ways things are structured in Ghana. In fact, it takes not only more than

three weeks before business-people could register their businesses, but also they do not secure requisite

tax holidays to help them obtain a strong foothold in the market.

Some of the business-people, again, cannot afford the high cost of training and advisory services while

others do not see the need to upgrade their skills due to complacency. As to technology, “some of the

[business operators] have difficulty in gaining access to appropriate technologies and information on

available techniques” (Aryeetey et al., 1994, p. 224). It is also necessary to learn that each person tends to

be different and so is each situation, but in the Ghanaian context, there seems to be some internal barriers

such as fear of the unknown and fear of taking risks even at a time when things appear not to be going too

badly. More so, people have the opportunity to do things differently, it might be better to hang on to what

appears to work for them. Then again, there appears a slight lack of confidence about the ability people

possess to cope with difficult nature of the business terrain, especially in Ghana. This is significant


~ 33 ~


because enterprise, to Twentieth Century Dictionary (cited in Cordeiro, 2007, p. 97), is “a bold or

dangerous undertaking; [which requires] readiness, initiative and daring; a business concern [to venture;

after all, „nothing ventured nothing gained”].

Strategies in Managing Small Businesses in the Communities

Engaging actively in lifelong learning largely helps inculcate in business people the savings culture as a

safety net to build their businesses. Actively participating in short workshops, seminars and symposia are

crucial if success is to be realised in launching and successfully managing small businesses by business

people. The combined skills, knowledge, and information acquired by business people, usually called

intellectual capital, are largely required for the success in managing small businesses. Adult learning

should be focused on addressing unemployment and poverty problems currently confronting Ghanaians

through job creation. Since adult learning is synonymous with learning for work as observed by (English

& Mayo, 2012), it suggests that learning to create small businesses in the communities to offer jobs to

people is the obvious choice in Ghana now. After all true enterprising community members are always

working hard to establish and own businesses.

Enterprising individuals could come together as groups to solicit credit from banks and non-bank

financial institutions to create thriving businesses in their communities. There is also a number of private

micro-finance and credit houses who grant loans to groups of business-people, knowing very well that

payment would be effected by the groups but not the individuals. Such enterprising individuals in the

communities could solicit group funding and training opportunities from the commercial banks, non-bank

financial institutions, and government institutions, including the Youth Enterprise Service (YES), Rural

Enterprise Programme (REP), National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), Micro-Finance and

Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) and Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF). The provision of these

important supports systems in quantities to hard working business-people, would largely aid them to

create sustainable jobs for many community members in their communities.

The development of realistic and sound business plan is critical to success of small businesses. The wise

saying: „failure to plan amounts to planning to fail‟ holds true in small business management. It is

significant because business plan details out products or services the venture would offer, the type of

market they want to sell their products or services and the process of reaching it. It also provides the

financial requirements needed in establishing and operating the business, the expected returns and how

the business would be operated are captured. If such details are not documented to guide the direction of

the venture, it becomes difficult to succeed in business endeavours, because essentially, you would be


~ 34 ~


groping in the dark, and not knowing exactly where you are going with your business. Even the type of

media to employ to promote your products and services is also important here. Building effective

planning strategy into a business enables the business operator ascertain his/her objectives, the market

research to be undertaken, the timetable guiding the business, thus short, medium and long-term plan for

the business, and evaluation methods to adopt to steer the business on the right part. Planning of the

business would become real to the owner of the business, his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats (SWOT) analysis to be undertaken in managing the business, so as to adopt strategies to remain

relevant in his/her line of business. Planning, is indeed, key to success in business enterprise.

Group-lending is another strategy to be adopted to grow and manage small businesses in the

communities. Putting in place micro-finance programmes to make loans easily accessible to small

business owners by means of group guarantees is another good approach in driving small businesses. In

this case, the members of the credit groups, according to Erulkar, et al. (2006), guarantee each other‟s

payments as an alternative to traditional forms of loans collateral such as land, other assets, or income

from former employment. “Group lending models are seen as a promising approach to reducing the cost

of lending and increasing repayment rates while reaching the small business operators with bank services”

(Erulkar, et al.,p. 12). Additionally, credit groups are seen to have social value in bringing people, and in

this case business operators together, to discuss their problems, exchange ideas, and interact within a

wider social network (Erulkaret al., 2006). When the micro-finance institutions operating in Ghana adopt

the Grameen Bank model in doing business with small business operators, it will help in propping small

businesses up, and help them grow in the communities. More so, approaches that combine micro-finance

with training and mentoring of business-people in managing small business enterprises are extremely

significant in supporting small businesses in Ghana.

Success in enterprising mindset in the communities requires that business-people strive hard to become

visionary transformers as observed by Peters and Waterman (cited in Kourdi, 2015). They reveal that the

skills to succeed in visionary transformation “include energy and drive, dogged determination, a capacity

for hard work, exceptional communication skills and the ability to empower and motivate others and to

act as a role model” (p. 32). Kourdi (2015) asserts that the “success of a visionary approach depends

ultimately on pragmatism: the ability to achieve a vision by listening, acting and learning rather than

adopting plans or rigid approaches [to small business management]” (p. 32). This observation indicates

one significant thing, thus learning, and for that matter, adopting adult learning strategies, are critical for

success in managing small businesses. Bringing on-board mentors, role models, entrepreneurs‟ specialist

and active participation in seminars, workshops, and symposia are extremely important signals of success


~ 35 ~


to prospective business people. The developments of the „can-do‟ spirit in the business endeavours,

undertaken by prospective business people, are equally important in succeeding in managing small

businesses effectively. It means, therefore, that the development of appropriate attitudes, skills,

experiences, self-motivation and personal situations of business people also largely accounts for the

success or otherwise of small businesses. Appropriate skills and attributes the prospective business men

or women bring into managing the businesses are very vital. All these demonstrate the essence of lifelong

learning, which adult learning is perceived today, as very critical to successful management of small

businesses in our communities.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This paper examined how adult learning connects to small-scale business promotion in Ghana. It sought

for prospects, challenges and strategies to help promote enterprising mindset in the communities. It was a

library and hands-on study. The paper indicated that mass extensive poverty and unemployment continue

to be the biggest worries of many community members in Ghana. No wonder, many young adults today,

have taken to wanton destruction of the environment, including the water bodies through the illegal

mining activities dubbed „galamsey,‟ which literally refers to the „gathering of mineral resources and

selling them.‟ It revealed that there are many entrepreneurial opportunities in our communities; however,

many community members do not have the entrepreneurial eye to identify the needs in the communities.

Meanwhile this era is described as the „age of entrepreneurship.‟ There exists in Ghana, today, business

friendly economic policies which potential business people can take advantage of, and create small

businesses in our communities. To comprehensively promote and succeed in small businesses endeavours

in the communities, business people, government, and adult learning institutions would have to do a

number of things. Based on the observations made, the following recommendations are proffered:

Business people should take up the challenge of actively participating in formal and non-formal

adult learning programmes on small business management organized by government institutions,

NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and International Development Organisations. It is through these

educational programmes that the enterprising people in our communities would acquire and

develop growth mindset in business management skills, knowledge, values and attitudes to

remain motivated, committed, and abreast of their lines of business. In short, the business people

active participation in short tailor-made business courses, workshops, seminars and symposia

would make them become better prepared for the business environment they operate in.

Government should successfully motivate community members to take up the challenge of

initiating, creating and launching small businesses in our communities. Group-lending and


~ 36 ~


microfinance schemes should be instituted, strengthened, promoted and encouraged by the

financial and non-bank financial institutions to support local people create small businesses for

themselves and others. Repayment of credit advanced to operators of small businesses, should be

guaranteed by the group members, not just the individuals. The NBSSI, YES, MASLOC, NEIP

and VCTF should be strengthened financially, and technically, to provide training in business

plan development, management, basic market research and advisory services to enterprising

people in our communities.

Government should adopt integrated multimedia communication approach to vigorously promote

and build the enterprising mindset of community members toward small business initiatives in the

communities. The over 500 radio stations, television stations, Information Service Cinema Vans

and appropriate social media techniques should be used to sensitise, conscientise and educate

community members on the need to be entrepreneurial in their thinking and action.

Adult learning institutions should design and roll out appropriate training programmes

comprising on-the-job and off-the-job, to prospective business-people to continually build their

capacities in initiating, launching and managing businesses. Regular education and training

programmes provided to business-people would put the enterprising people in a better stead to

cope with fast-paced and profound changes taking place in business environment nationally and

globally. Such training programmes when properly planned and undertaken would empower

business-people to demonstrate not only plain hard working spirit, but also engender excellent

managerial talent, skills and resilient leadership capabilities in managing small businesses in the

communities.

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DESIGN OF AUTONOMOUS RESCUE MAT FOR ROBOTICS INSPIRED

SCIENCE EDUCATION

Isaac Kuma Yeboah

1, Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi

2, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu

3

1Regent University College of Science and Technology

2, 3 Ghana Robotic Academy Foundation


Abstract

Robotic Inspired Science Education (RISE) is fairly new. However, it has been able to accomplish the following in

Senior High School level: inspiring minds, igniting passion for science and technology and celebrating intellectual

achievement. The main mission of RISE workshop is to inspire and energize teachers, middle and high school

students as well as university students in Ghana to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering

and mathematics (STEM) by using the motivational effects of robots to connect theory with practice. One major field

that robots have found great use is in autonomous rescue. Autonomous rescue mirrors a real life threatening

situation where a victim is stuck in a mine tunnel. In the research experiment, robots competed by following a

winding line on a field course to find the victim and then pushed the victim to a safe area using artificial

intelligence. This research work shows the design and implementation of autonomous rescue robotic mat for Ghana

Robotic Academy Foundation using PVC mat with the following colours, deep green with CMYK of 55,0,100,0, light

green with CMYK of 45,0,100,0 and black with CMYK of 77,0,100,0. The measured percentage reflectivity using

light sensor of NXT lego for deep green was 41%, for light green was 46%, for white was 60% and black was 36%.

These measurements were then compared to a standard Austrian mat with the following colour reflectivity, green

was 43%, white was 65%, and black was 34%. Hence comparing the reflectivity that was done under the same

environmental condition, the mat with deep green was almost the same as the standard Austrian mat. Also, this

paper highlights the achievements of these workshops, competitions on students' involvement with robotics inspired

science education in Ghana and also learning from one of the world's best in robotics.

Keywords: Robotics, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Autonomous Rescue

Introduction

he Ghana Robotic Academy Foundation was founded by (Trebi-Ollennu, 2011), as a non-profit

volunteer organization dedicated to motivating and inspiring the next generation of Ghanaians

interest and participation in science and technology (Al-Kaff, A., Moreno, F.M., Arturo de la Escalera &

Armingol, J.M., 2017). The mission of Ghana Robotic Academy Foundation (GRAF) is to design

accessible and innovative programmes that will excite and motivate young Ghanaians to pursue careers in

science, technology and engineering, build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. This research work

will focus on Autonomous Rescue Challenge and the design of autonomous rescue mat. Autonomous

Rescue Challenge: The RISE 2011 used the Australia Robo Cup Junior Rescue course. RISE introduces

students to the excitement and experience of solving real world problems by applying, science,

T

mailto:[email protected]


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technology, and engineering and mathematics skills. Using LEGO Windstorms technology, students work

alongside professional engineers to design, build and program robots to solve real world problems. RISE

2011 commenced in Tamale from the 3rd

to 4th of October at the Tamale Secondary School, with thirteen

Senior High Schools from the Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions participating.

The second workshop was held at Kofi Annan ICT Centre in Accra with thirteen schools from the Greater

Accra, Eastern and Volta regions from the 6th to 7

th of October, 2011. The final workshop was held at

Ghana Secondary Technical School in Takoradi with twelve Senior High Schools from Western, Central

and Ashanti regions from the 10th to 11

th of October, 2011 (Behnke, 2017). Students practice construction

and programming with the NXT intelligent brick with servo motors, touch sensor, light sensor and ultra-

sonic sensor (Al-Kaff et al., 2017). In teams of ten, students build robots and program them with a

computer to move, react and make sounds in order to solve real life problems with increasing complexity

over the period of instruction. The teams work in a cooperative and supportive environment in two

distinct challenges; these are Autonomous Rescue Challenge and Autonomous Maze Challenge (Canudas

de Wit, C., Siciliano, B & Bastin, G.,1996).

The competition mirrors a real life threatening situation where a victim is stuck in a mine tunnel, with the

clock ticking the robots compete by following a winding line on a field course to find the victim. On the

way, the robot will encounter short cut opportunities that will challenge the most adroit programmer.

Artificial intelligence at its best, after the robot finds the victim in the tunnel the robot pushes the victim

to a green safe area. The team with the fast average time over three rounds wins the competition.

Equipment used during the workshops are two laptops and two LEGO MINDSTORMS Education Base

Sets for each school team of ten students and two teachers. Each school which participated received the

equipment listed in table 1 below. Humans have the perception of what is white is adaptive and have a

remarkable ability to tune out the effect of scene illumination so that white objects always appear to be

white as research studies have shown. Compared to robot, this poses real problems when using colour to

understand the scene because the observed chromaticity varies with lighting. Outdoors the colour of the

morning or evening Sun is about 3500 K. This is different to that of the noon Sun which is about 6500 K

(Choi, Y. & Chung, W.K., 2004). An overcast day is different to a clear day and reflections from

buildings or trees all conspire to change the illumination spectrum, hence the luminance and colour of the

object. Mobile robots in complex environments, like rough terrain or inside buildings need to perceive

their environment in 3D in order to act. Autonomous ground vehicles and micro aerial vehicles are

equipped with 3D laser scanners, cameras and other sensors. The distance measurements are registered

and aggregated in an efficient way in order to create 3D maps representations of the robot surroundings.

These maps are enriched with semantics and segmented into meaningful parts by categorizing surfaces,


~ 41 ~


detecting objects and estimating their pose (Coke, 2011). The next section will show how the light sensor

of the NXT LEGO was used to measure the colour reflection on the robotic mates and was used to design

it.

Table 1: Participating Schools Received Equipment Listed Below

QUANTITY EQUIPMENT TOTAL

NO.

2 LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education

Base Set

92

1 LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education

NXT Software v.2.0

46

1 NXT-G Site License 46

1 NXT Temperature Sensor 46

1 Laptop Computer HP 625-Athlon II P340

2.2 GHz- 15.6” TFT

46

Source: (Behnke , 2017)

The figure 1 shows RISE 2013 zones of participating schools where selected students across the country

with particular attention place on gender balanced with 50% female and 50% male.

Fig. 1: RISE 2013 Participants and Demographics Source: (Al-Kaff, 2017)


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Methodology

The intelligent vehicle for search, rescue and transportation purposes system is able to detect and classify

the human bodies and the objects using low cost depth sensor. Victims‟ bodies are detected using SVM

and HOG features. Moreover, a semi-autonomous reactive control is implemented to control the position

and the velocity of the UAV for safe approaching manoeuvres to the detected objects (Robotics Inspired

Science Education Report, 2011). Traditionally control design in robot manipulators can be understood as

the simple fact of tuning of a PD or PID compensator at the level of each motor driving the manipulator

joint (Robotics Inspired Science Education Report, 2012). A PD controller fundamentally is a position

and velocity feedback that has good closed-loop properties when applied to a double integrator system.

The physical meanings of PID control (Trebi-Ollennu, 2014) are as follows: P - Control means the

present effort making a present state into desired state. I – Control means the accumulated effort using the

experience information of previous states. D – Control means the predictive effort reflecting the

information about trends in future states. Hence, this control method was used during the RISE 2013

autonomous rescue as shown in figure 3. The calibration of sensors is really important to ensure optimum

use. This is especially the case when using light sensors for line following. Hence, the light sensor can be

effectively used in the actual conditions expected. The following steps are used during the light sensors

calibration process;

Step 1: What is the current situation? This is done by using the View program on the NXT brick. Find

values for black, white and green on the mat. This was done using different areas with recorded values

shown in the table below.

Step 2: Calibrate the sensor. This is done by finding the tools menu at the top and use it to calibrate

sensors, while making sure light sensor and the correct port are calibrated by pressing the instructions on

the NXT brick.

Step 3: Check new values for black and white values function in the NXT brick. Record them and check

for differences. The calibrated light sensor was used to measure the light reflection on the Austria mat as

shown in table 2 below.

Table 2: Austrian Autonomous Rescue Mat Light Sensor Measurements

VALUES/

COLORS.

VALUE 1 VALUE 2 VALUE 3 VALUE 4

BLACK 34% 34% 34% 35%

WHITE 65% 65% 64% 65%

GREEN 41% 41% 43% 43%


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The same calibrated light sensor was used to measure the colours on various PVC mat and the one with

almost the same reflectivity as the Austria mat was then chosen as shown in table 3 below.

Table 3: PVC Mat Light Sensor Measurements

VALUES/COLORS. VALUE 1 VALUE 2 VALUE 3 VALUE 4

BLACK 35% 36% 36% 35%

WHITE 60% 60% 60% 60%

DEEP GREEN 41% 41% 41% 40%

LIGHT GREEN 45% 46% 45% 45%

Rescue End Tile Roundabout Straight S Bend

Corner Corner Bend Hairpin Bends Dead-end

Fig. 2: Design of New Autonomous Rescue PVC Mat for RISE 2013

Results and Discussion

Control ideas and techniques used was the proportional control applied to line following robot for the

RISE 2013. For the past RISE events 2011 and 2012, students have used Bang Bang control to solve this

problem as a result, their robots move in a zig zag fashion. GRAF teaches students to calibrate their light

sensor using the equation of a line, these enable students to use multiple light sensors. The equation of a

line calibration approach provided flexibility to the teams and although the lego NXT has a calibration

program for the NXT light sensor, it only works with a single light sensor. In addition it was a very

straight forward application of classroom curriculum in practical and hands on learning. GRAF introduces


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the students to Proportional (P), Proportional plus Differential (PD) and Proportional plus Integral plus

Differential (PID).

Fig. 3: Design of New Autonomous Rescue PVC Mat Used for RISE 2013

Fig. 4: Female high school student watching her robot follow the Autonomous Rescue Course Source: (Al-Kaff, 2017)

This proved to be a hit with the students 100% of all the teams that participated in RISE 2013. They

calibrated their light sensor using the equation of a line. The high school category of the RISE 2013

Autonomous Rescue Challenge over 75% of the team used at least proportional control and out of which

35% used PD. The newly designed autonomous rescue PVC mat as shown in figure 3 was used for RISE

2013 Autonomous Rescue Challenge. The winning team an all girls team used PD controller as shown in

figure 3 above. Figure 4 below shows 16% growth for RISE 2013 compared to RISE 2011 and 2012

students. Coaches to train them are limited because they are not well taken care of!

Rescue End


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Fig.5: Bar Chat Results Growth of 16% for RISE 2013 than RISE 2011 and 2012

Fig. 6: Feedbacks from student after participating in RISE Source: (Al-Kaff et al., 2017)

The integration of practical approach of learning in the curriculum inspired 90% of the students as they

had first-hand experience in the lesson. In addition, 80% of them gained an in depth knowledge of what

they wanted to study as they progress. A testament of their interest in the study of Science and

Technology yielded 80%. Also, 90% of the students gained a better understanding of how to use STEM to


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solve real world problems. 80% of students gained a better idea of what to study in college and out of that

70% became more interested in a career that involved Mathematics, Science and Technology. The

feedback taken from the students are as shown in figure 6 indicated in alphabetical order from A to E with

their corresponding percentages.

Conclusions

In conclusion, students learn skills that will aid them in future job placement by acquiring teamwork,

leadership and problem solving skills. These foster creativity, critical thinking and innovation which is

key on the job market. Also, RISE has been able to accomplish the following in SHS students: inspiring

minds, igniting passion for Science and Technology and celebrating intellectual achievement. The design

and implementation of autonomous rescue robotic mat for Ghana Robotic Academy Foundation using

PVC mat with the following colours, deep green resulted in reflectivity of 41%, black with reflectivity

36% and white with reflectivity of 60%. These measurements compared to a standard Austrian mat with

the following colour reflectivity, green with reflectivity of 43%, and black with reflectivity of 34% and

white with reflectivity of 65%. Therefore, comparing the reflectivity that was done under the same

environmental condition the mat with deep green was almost the same as green in the standard Austrian

mat. The achievements of these workshops rated in percentages by students' involvement in robotics

inspired science education in Ghana are 49% for excellent, 48% for good and 3% for fair.

References

Al-Kaff, A., Moreno, F.M., Arturo de la Escalera & Armingol, J.M. (2017). Intelligent Vehicle for Search, Rescue and

Transportation Purposes: The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics.

Behnke, S. (2017). Perception and Planning for Autonomous Mobile Robots in Complex Environments: The 15th IEEE

International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics.

Canudas de Wit, C., Siciliano, B & Bastin, G.(1996). Theory of Robot Control. London: Springer.

Choi, Y. & Chung, W.K. (2004). PID Trajectory Tracking Control for Mechanical Systems: Lecture Notes in Control and

Information Sciences. vol. 289, New York: Springer.

Coke, P. (2011), Robotics Vision and Control Fundamental Algorithms in MATLAB. Springer Publishers, p.241.

Robotics Inspired Science Education Report -Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (2011), accessed on April 19, 2017, from

www.ghanarobotics.org

Robotics Inspired Science Education Report -Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (2012), accessed on May 23, 2017, from

www.ghanarobotics.org

Trebi-Ollennu, A. (2014). Precollege students RISE to STEM Activities in Ghana-IEEE Control Systems.accessed on May 23,

2017, www.ghanarobotics.org.

http://www.ghanarobotics.org/

http://www.ghanarobotics.org/


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ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION CURRICULAR THREAD: A

FIRST- YEAR EXPERIENCE PILOT COURSE AT KATTERING

UNIVERSITY, USA

Abdrahamane Traoré

1, Massoud S. Tavakoli

2

1Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan – USA

1,2KetteringUniversity, Flint, Michigan – USA


Abstract Innovation to Entrepreneurship Across the University (i2e-AU) is an initiative at Kettering University in Michigan,

USA to promote entrepreneurial mindset in teaching and learning. In 2012, i2e-AU ran a pilot programme,

sponsored by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), for a new class titled „Innovation-101‟. This

multidisciplinary course was designed to introduce freshmen to entrepreneurially minded learning(EML) that

combines science, engineering, innovation, entrepreneurship, and business principles with a focus on a selected

important societal need derived from the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges; specifically,

“Reverse Engineering the Brain.” Faculty members from different departments lectured for two weeks, introducing

students to the problems and how they might begin to address them. By using “hands-on” exercises, including the

actual design development and implementation of neurofeedback systems, students learned to use a systematic

approach to surveying assessment and testing of neurofeedback electroencephalogram (EEG) data. In addition,

students gained knowledge of developing business models, commercialization, and humanity aspects of a dynamic,

modern neurofeedback system. With an emphasis on gainful employment opportunities and entrepreneurial skills,

students could learn about institutional and clinical needs for „reverse engineering the brain‟. Weekly feedbacks

were collected from students to assess how they felt about this new teaching method. As final project, students used

their newly acquired knowledge to create or improve a brain-based EEG system to address some society issues. A

student expo was held at the end of the course for students to present their final projects and pitch their design ideas

to a panel of judges.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Mindset, Entrepreneurially Minded Learning, Multidisciplinary Teaching,

Innovation, Hands-on Engineering Education, Neurofeedback

Introduction

raditional engineering education is focused on teaching skill sets; however, can universities teach a

mindset that would help engineering students to apply their skill sets to create value? Do they teach

skill sets and mindsets that would enhance curiosity, ability to create connections between technical

knowledge, financial and human resources, all leading to value creation? These were questions that

prompted the Kern Family Foundation in Wisconsin – USA to create the Kern Entrepreneurial

Engineering Network (KEEN) to enhance the quality of US engineering education by using

entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) to help students understand value creation above and beyond

T


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creativity. Kettering University in Michigan, USA is a member of KEEN. Consequently, Kettering

University began an entrepreneurship and innovation curricular thread, an initiative to promote

entrepreneurial mindset in teaching and learning across the university by creating the Innovation to

Entrepreneurship Across the University (i2e-AU) programme. In this effort, the i2e-AU programme

offered a pilot “Innovation-101” class in 2012 to introduce fresh students to the concept of EML

according to the KEEN framework.

Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)

The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) was created by the Kern Family Foundation as a

collaborative partnership of US colleges and universities in a quest of coupling an entrepreneurial mindset

to the engineering skill set to transform US engineering education and maintain US economic growth.

According to (Kern Family Foundation, 2017) entrepreneurially minded students should:

a) have a constant curiosity about our changing world and employ a contrary view of accepted

solutions;

b) habitually connect information from many sources to gain insight and manage risk and

c) create value for others from unexpected opportunities as well as persist though, and learn from,

failure.

Therefore, KEEN focuses on curiosity, connections, and creating value as “the 3C‟s of entrepreneurial

mindset” and has for mission to graduate engineers equipped with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can

create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work (Entrepreneurial

Mindset 101, 2017).Fig. 1 shows the entrepreneurial continuum concept developed by KEEN (Rae et al,

2016), which illustrates that entrepreneurial mindset is the seed for sustainable business creation. The

authors in Rae et al (2016) also explain the concept of EML and how it differs from the problem-based

learning (PBL) and Design Thinking methods.


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Fig. 1: The entrepreneurial continuum, from mindset to business creation (Source: Rae et al, 2016)

Kettering University Innovation-to-Entrepreneurship Across the University (i2e-AU) Programme

The i2e-AU programme is designed to promote the concept of entrepreneurial mindset and spread the role

of EML amongst faculty members and students from all disciplines and departments at Kettering

University. In an effort to accomplish this vision, i2e-AU serves as a campus-wide resource for providing

faculty workshops, materials for innovation in teaching and learning, weekly student innovation

challenges, weekly distinguished speaker sessions, access to the Kettering Entrepreneur Society (KES)

and support for participations in the KEEN and American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)

seminars and conferences. Figure 2 is a depiction of i2e-AU programme vision for the entrepreneurship

and innovation curricular thread at Kettering University by introducing the new “Innovation-101” course

right from the first year in an attempt to start shaping the students‟ entire academic career path (Rae et al,

2016). Students are also introduced to KES at the end of the course so that they can get involved and

interact with likely minded peers throughout their college years.


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Fig. 2: Vision for entrepreneurship and innovation curricular thread

Innovation-101

This KEEN-sponsored, 10-week multidisciplinary pilot course was designed by i2e-AU at Kettering

University to offer practical “hands-on” innovation and EML, based on the Engineering Grand Challenge

to “Reverse Engineer the Brain” (National Academy of Engineers, 2008), providing fresh students with

the necessary skills to acquire and analyse neurofeedback data. Emphasis was placed on teaching basic

design principles and offering practical “hands-on” innovation and entrepreneurial mindset training

through an EML approach. A key feature of the course is the partnership with a corporate sponsor (or

industry partner) related to the topic for the term (e.g. economical solar power, accessible clean water,

affordable medical telematics, etc.).

Methodology

When the “Innovation-101” course was delivered (via lecture, calculation, experiment and interaction) to

the fresh students, the societal need was framed with the help of the industry partner to raise students‟

curiosity. According to (Kriewall 2012), societal needs drive innovation and creativity, concept

development, proof of concept, product development, commercialization, job creation, economic

development and world benefits. Based on the faculty and industry partner involved and the pre-course

assessment of the students, specific hands-on experiments were developed to address current advances in

neurofeedback. At this stage, students were tasked with finding out about different applications of

neurofeedback systems then prepare a report and classroom presentation about their findings. Students

found out that knowing how the brain works through neurofeedback has broad implications, such as

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addictions, anxiety, autism, chronic pain, depression,


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epilepsy, learning disabilities, migraines, sleep disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),

fibromyalgia, stroke and closed head injuries.

Next, the industry partner introduced students to challenges faced by the neurofeedback industry, such as

cost effectiveness, human capital efficiency, and safe patient acuity. This empowered the students to

come up with questions and seek solutions. The multidisciplinary teaching environment, shown in Fig 3,

connects the students to other academic areas outside their own departments to interact with other

students and start thinking about innovation solutions that address different aspects of the problem. The

academic disciplines in this course were Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE), Business (BUSN),

Liberal Studies (LS), Computer Science (CS), Mechanical Engineering (ME), Industrial & Manufacturing

Engineering (IME) and Chemical Engineering (ChemE).The weekly lecture schedule by academic

discipline is illustrated in Table 1, and Fig 4 shows photos of some lab and classroom activities.

Fig. 3: Multidisciplinary course delivery

Table 1: Weekly “Innovation-101” lecture schedule by academic discipline

Weeks Lectures Main Topics

1 General / LS Pre-course assessment, Introduction to public speaking

2 General Neurofeedback principles, terms and definitions

3 ChemE Neurofeedback and chemistry of the brain

4 ME / IME Mechanical design and prototype development

5 BUSN / General Entrepreneurship vs. Intrapreneurship, Innovation, NABC

6 ECE / CS Electrical and software development, experiment, project intro

7 Project Team project

8 Project Team project

9 BUSN / Project Business case development, Elevator Pitch, Team project


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Fig. 4: Photos of some students‟ lab and classroom activities

Students are also introduced to KES towards the end of the course to make sure they keep connecting, as

previously mentioned and shown in figure 4 above. Throughout those lectures, calculations, experiments

and interactions students also acquired knowledge about the chemistry of brain cells, basic electrical and

software design using ARDUINO open-source programming environment, graphing and displaying their

own brain electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, using their minds/thoughts to control a light. To prepare

for the final project, in week 4, students were assigned to perform a critical assessment of an existing

neurofeedback system and identify a potential for engineering improvement as well as a new application

area for the system. After students submitted their results in week 5, they were introduced to the Need-

Approach-Benefits-Competition (NABC) concept developed by (Carlson et al, 2006), in order to

effectively, yet concisely pitch new ideas to a target audience or potential backers. This exercise is based

on an “elevator pitch” scenario, where you accidentally meet an important person (i.e. a CEO, a potential

investor or someone who can help you take your idea to the next level) in an elevator and have just about

one to two minutes of elevator ride time to pitch your idea. Therefore, in that brief time the students

learned to persuasively and professionally present their idea, project or product by first identifying their

customer then conveying the following:

a) Need: What is their customer need?

b) Approach: How does their approach address this need and solve the problem?

c) Benefits: What are the key benefits to their customer compared to alternative solutions?


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d) Competition: Who is their main competition and what value proposition gives their solution

and advantage over the solutions provided by their competitors?

Finally, students used their newly acquired knowledge to create or improve a brain-based EEG system to

address some society issues they care about. This final course project was all about creating value,

allowing students to learn about taking an idea from invention to commercialization in a quest to add

value to the society. At the public students‟ expo, the project was judged based on the following four

criteria:

a) Engineering Goal: Was the purpose/engineering design clearly stated?

b) Innovative/Entrepreneurial Ability: Is the project topic unique or is the approach novel?

c) Technical Skill: Has the group used technical skills to arrive at the solution?

d) Presentation:

Is the abstract and project board accurate and understandable?

Was the oral presentation (elevator pitch) accurate and understandable?

Was the value proposition (economic and societal) clearly stated as NABC?

Results and Discussion

Students were selectively put in teams of threes, making sure that a single team was made up of students

from different academic departments. After each lecture session, students were asked about their

experience regarding their needs, the relevance of the contents and usefulness of the materials. The results

from the student feedbacks are shown in figure 5 through 7. When students were asked whether the

class/session met their needs or not, the majority agreed throughout the course. However, we can see from

figure 5 that three out of eighteen students disagreed with this statement after the session of week four.

This may be due to the fact that those students could not connect well with the mechanical design and

prototype development concepts that were presented during the lecture session. In figure 6, all students

agreed that the content was relevant and engaging for the lecture of the second week, when the students

were first introduced the Neurofeedback concept. This result shows that the students liked new subjects

and are more engaged when they are introduced to new, practical topics. Figure 7 reveals that overall the

students found this multidisciplinary approach and material useful for their academic growth.


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Fig. 5: Students‟ feedback about the session meeting their needs

Fig. 6: Students‟ feedback about the relevance of the course contents

Fig. 7: Students‟ feedback about the usefulness of the materials for academic growth


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Six groups were formed for the team projects, each group made up of three students. Each group came up

with a project addressing a societal need that was dear to them. The group projects were as follows:

a) Brain Beats: A brain wave/EEG measurement device that could be integrated into a

headphone to map how the brain reacts to different beats then create a playlist on a media

player to play tracks depending on the subject‟s brain status and stress level.

b) Mind Racer: Mind-controlled RC cars allowing children or people with disabilities (i.e.

ADHD) to learn to focus and sharpen their attention through brain exercises while having

fun.

c) Sleepless By: Brain activity monitoring system to protect restless and long-haul drivers

from traffic accidents by sensing the driver‟s brain activities and setting a buzzer and/or

light when the driver‟s attention level drops below a certain threshold.

d) NeuroAudio Process (N.A.P.): A mind-controlled stress-relief device that selects

musical tracks based on the subject‟s mood to calm the subject down and help manage

stress and mood swing.

e) Mind-controlled Flight: Mind-controlled vertical take-off and landing aircraft allowing

children or people with mental disabilities (i.e. ADHD) to focus and sharpen their

attention through brain exercises while having fun.

f) Stress Wave Control: A medical tool that helps a patient cope with stress and mental

disabilities by making him/her aware of his/her brain activities via illuminating

indicators.

Conclusions

This paper outlines Kettering University‟s “Innovation-101” pilot course, which was developed by the

i2e-AU programme and sponsored by KEEN in an effort to introduce first-year students to EML

according to the KEEN framework. The overall goals of the pilot course were achieved. Students

provided positive feedback about their experience with this new hands-on, multidisciplinary teaching and

learning approach. The public project expo raised students‟ performance since they had a well-defined

problem, a target audience and a deadline. Upon successful completion of the pilot “Innovation-101”

course, students could:

a) apply hands-on implementation of engineering design processes in a multidisciplinary

learning environment,

b) employ engineering design criteria and perform preliminary research,

c) develop innovative solutions to address relevant societal needs,

d) develop and clearly state a value proposition for commercial applications,


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e) use the concepts of Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship and

f) effectively communicate ideas to an audience.

The study showed that a multidisciplinary course does not require all disciplines within a given

university; disciplines should be selected based on the theme of the class. Because of their involvement

with the i2e-AU programme, the participating lecturers continued to integrate EML into their pre-existing

and/or newly developed courses. Improved and more comprehensive assessment tools needed to be used

to better measure the impact of this new education approach on both students and faculty members.

The Innovation-to-Entrepreneurship Course of Study was developed by i2e-AU as an elective pathway

for students at Kettering University (I2E-AU, 2017). This innovative multidisciplinary teaching approach

to integrating EML and stimulating entrepreneurial mindset in US engineering education can easily be

adopted by international institutions and can have great impact on education and socio-economic

development of a nation or region.

References

Carlson, C.R. and Wilmot, W.W., “Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want”, 06, Crown Publishing,

ISBN 13:978-0-307-33669-9, pp. 85-100.

Entrepreneurial Mindset - Kern Family Foundation (2017, April). May 5, 2017, from http://www.kffdn.org/entrepreneurial-

mindset

Entrepreneurial Mindset 101 - Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) (2017), March 16, 2017, from

http://engineeringunleashed.com/keen/em101

Innovation to Entrepreneurship Course of Study – i2e-CS | Innovation-to-Entrepreneurship Across the University (I2E-AU).

(2017). Retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://newb.kettering.edu/wp/i2e-au/available-courses

Kriewall, T. J., (2012), “KEEN Revisited”, presented at the 2012 KEEN Regional Conference, Flint, MI.

National Academy of Engineers (NAE), (2017), “14 Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century”, April 18, 2017,

fromwww.engineeringchallenges.org

Rae, D. and Melton, D.E., (2016) “Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in US Engineering Education: An International View

of the KEEN Project”, The Journal of Engineering Entrepreneurship, vol. 7

http://www.kffdn.org/entrepreneurial-mindset

http://www.kffdn.org/entrepreneurial-mindset

http://engineeringunleashed.com/keen/em101

http://newb.kettering.edu/wp/i2e-au/available-courses

http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/


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EMPOWERING THE GHANAIAN YOUTH FOR ACCELERATED

DEVELOPMENT

Michael Owusu Tabiri

Ghana Technology University College

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This article examines practical steps that must be taken to empower African youth for trans-generational

accelerated and all round development. The data were generally gathered through questionnaires answered by 150

Ghanaian university students. It was found through administration of survey questionnaires that only a handful of

the respondents had entrepreneurial and educational ambitions or goals after their University education. The

synopsis of the findings is as follows: Employment focused ambitions -70%, Educational ambitions – 20% and

Entrepreneurial ambitions- 10 %. It was discovered that to ensure youth development, nurturing, training,

equipping and empowering must be the principal pillars or stages to incorporate and harness tirelessly and

diligently. It was also revealed that without equipping and empowering the youth educationally, economically and

entrepreneurially, there cannot be any future development. The paper argues that empowerment leads to

development. That is, a meaningful empowerment and equipping will automatically lead to sustainable accelerated

development. The work contributes to the process of trans-generational development and empowerment that should

definitely lead to sustainable national development as well as stressing the only panacea for juvenile delinquency.

The paper proposes incorporation of mentorship and empowerment into Ghanaian tertiary institutions‟

programmes, as well as transforming the one year National Service to mandatory Mentorship and Empowerment for

all graduates of tertiary institutions.

Keywords: Youth Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Accelerated, Trans-generational, sustainable

Development.

Introduction

mpowerment is the process of giving power or authority to someone to act and fend for oneself,

family and the society as a whole. Empowerment can be social, academic, religious, economic,

political and financial. Empowerment involves total nurturing, training and equipping of the individual so

as to anticipate efficiency and effectiveness from the one empowered. In other words, trans-generational

empowerment encompasses giving an enabling environment, imparting the technical know-how into the

youth to ensure efficiency and efficacy in the present generation as well as continuous and sustainable

development of posterity. It is for this reason that we agree with Maxwell (1995) that true success comes

only when every generation continues to develop the next generation. It is said that when Bill Clinton was

in college, he had the chance to meet with President Kennedy and during this encounter he declared that

one day he would be in the White House. That desire became a reality when he became the 42nd

president

E


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of the United States of America. This emphasises and endorses the corporate motto of Meyer (1997), as

very crucial and worthy of emulation,

“Whatever you vividly imagine, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon…must

inevitably come to pass!”

It is believed that this research work will bring all round self-realization, enthusiasm, passion and total

transformation to the present generation and lead to accelerated trans-generational development. This

paper discusses principal pillars of empowerment, practical methods of empowerment like mentorship,

the role(s) of the Government, parents, the youth and the role of members of the community. It also

analyses the results and major findings from the respondents and categorizes them as Employment

ambitions, Educational ambitions and Entrepreneurial ambitions.

Objectives of the Study

To investigate how the Ghanaian youth could be empowered to bring about accelerated development.

Specific Objectives

To achieve the main objective, the following specific objectives were pursued:

i. To explore how the Ghanaian Youth could be empowered to ensure accelerated sustainable

development in the country.

ii. To discuss the principal pillars of human empowerment.

iii. To assess the practical ways the educated and uneducated youth could be empowered.

iv. To suggest solutions to juvenile delinquency and youth unemployment in the country.

Problem Statement

According to Sakyi (2015) about 60 % of the Ghanaian population who are youthful are massively

unemployed. Sakyi (2015) therefore proposes voluntarism, internship, apprenticeship, and self-

employment interventions without delay. Problems associated with disempowerment in a country cannot

be overemphasised. Lack of all-round empowerment: (educational, social, religious, economic, financial

and political) leads to poverty, diseases, sicknesses, social vices, juvenile delinquency and even death.

Lack of youth empowerment leads to stagnation and retrogression in the country as the majority of

Ghanaians are very youthful. The Government of the Republic of Ghana has realised the importance of

incorporating “entrepreneurial development into school curricular to give it the necessary impetus” since

2010 yet nothing practical and fruitful has been achieved since the passage of National Youth Policy in

2010. Real practical measures must be taken now to ensure long term development and empowerment

policy to materialize the national development agenda spearheading by the government.


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It is an undeniable fact that the youth of Ghana are educated formally or informally to acquire skills and

knowledge but acquiring skills or knowledge without proper application does not bring about

transformation and development. It is therefore incumbent upon all and sundry to adopt practical

strategies to ensure empowerment and hence leading to trans-generational development in the country.

Research Questions

The objectives of the study were addressed by answering the following questions:

i. What is empowerment?

ii. Is there any national policy on youth empowerment in Ghana?

iii. Is there any national development agenda for the Ghanaian youth?

iv. How can the Ghanaian Youth be empowered to ensure accelerated sustainable

development in the country?

v. What are the principal pillars of human empowerment?

vi. How can the educated and uneducated youth be empowered?

vii. What can be the panacea for juvenile delinquency and youth unemployment in the

country?

Literature Review

The theme for the National Youth Policy in Ghana is, “Towards an empowered Youth, Impacting

Positively on National Development” (National Youth Policy of Ghana, 2010). In Ghana, the National

Youth Policy classifies all persons 15-35 years to constitute the youth of the country (Republic of Ghana,

2010).According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census Report, “Ghana‟s population has remained

youthful and this is reflected in all the national censuses conducted in the country since independence. It

stressed that almost one out of every four persons in Ghana was reported to be aged 20-35 years. It is

against this background that it is of primus inter pares to strategize an effective mechanism of

empowering the Ghanaian youth for accelerated development. According to Maxwell (1995),

development takes more attention and commitment than either nurturing or equipping. Maxwell considers

nurturing as caring; equipping as training for work while developing is training for personal growth.

Henry Ford said,

“You can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people and I will bring

my business right back again.”(Maxwell, 1995:12).


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To ensure sustainable development, leaders must be people or human capital focused and not physical

capital focused. President Abraham Lincoln appointed General Ulysses S. Grant as commander of the

Union Armies in 1864, and sent him this message, “I neither ask nor desire to know anything of your

plans. Take the responsibility and act, and call me for assistance”. The above quotation implies the need

to delegate authority and responsibility to subordinates or young ones and encourage them to be creative

and critical thinkers in all spheres of life. (Maxwell, 1997)

Management expert Peter Drucker said, “No executive has ever suffered because his subordinates were

strong and effective” People become strong and effective only when they are given the opportunity to

make decisions, initiate action, solve problems, and meet challenges (Maxwell, 1997). The moment the

youth are empowered by the leaders, they are being helped to develop the ability to work independently

under the leadership authority.

As Fred A. Manske Jr. said, “The greatest leader is willing to train people and develop them to the point

that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability” (in Maxwell‟s book,1995, page 110). In

other words, when leaders refuse to train their followers to surpass them, due to self-aggrandizement and

selfishness they have disappointed both the present generation and posterity.

Ohene-Kyei (2015) said, “Develop courses with content that would produce graduates with a blend of

entrepreneurial skills and moral values.” According to Ohene-Kyei (2015) faith based education would

help to produce transformational leaders who would have the right attitude to enhance societal

development devoid of corrupt tendencies. Ohene-Kyei believes that faith focused education will lead to

zero corruption in Ghana because “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”.

Methodology

The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect empirical data for analysis. This

was to ensure attainment of balanced data/results for objective analysis. Purposive sampling strategy was

used to select the study site and participants. This ensured that only participants who could contribute

meaningfully were selected. The study site was the Faculty of Informatics first year students at the Ghana

Technology University College in Accra.

Data was gathered through administration of survey questionnaires to the one hundred and fifty (150)

students. The questionnaire was designed to be solely open-ended questions. The students were selected

to answer the following question:


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What do you want to do after your University education?

Table 1: Faculty of Informatics, Level 100 Students (2015/2016) At Ghana Technology University College- Tesano Campus,

Accra

RESPONDENTS MALE FEMALE TOTAL

LEVEL 100 STUDENTS 100 50 150

Results and Findings

The respondents were asked to answer the following question:

What do you want to do after your University education?

The results derived from the respondents are as follows:

Table 2: The Results from respondents

CHOICE OF

RESPONDENTS

NUMBER OF

RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

(%)

GRADE

Employment Focused

Ambitions

98 70 A

Educational Ambitions 35 20 F

Entrepreneurial

Ambitions

17 10 F

It was discovered that to ensure youth development, nurturing, training, equipping and empowering must

be the principal pillars or stages to incorporate and harness tirelessly and diligently. No nation can have

responsible future leaders if the youth are not well nurtured, equipped, trained and empowered. The paper

also proposes incorporation of mentorship and empowerment into Ghanaian tertiary institutions‟

programmes, as well as transforming the one year National Service to mandatory Mentorship and

Empowerment for all graduates of tertiary institutions, with the intention of ensuring efficient and

accelerated youth development in the country. It was found that only a handful of the respondents had

entrepreneurial ambitions or goals after their University education, hence inculcating entrepreneurism in

Ghanaian youth would be extremely beneficial. It is for this reason that we could also agree with Aryee

(2016) that,

“The key to building our economy in Ghana and Africa as a whole is entrepreneurship”

The work stresses that the only panacea for juvenile delinquency, coupled with all social vices and youth

unemployment is embarking on true empowerment today for accelerated development tomorrow.


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Recommendation and Contributions

How can the Ghanaian youth be empowered? True empowerment can be represented and incorporated as

follows:

E – Educate

M- Mentor

P- Pursue and promote

O – Observe holistically

W – Way of life

E – Encourage entrepreneurship

R – Relate

M – Manage

E – Equip

N – Nurture

T – Transform

A story to buttress importance of empowerment and showing mentees how to fly like an eagle:

“One day a boy found an eagle‟s nest with eggs in it. He snatched one of the eggs while the eagle was

away, took it back to his village, and put it under a sitting hen that had a brood of eggs. The eggs hatched

one by one, and when the eaglet came out of his shell, he had no reason to believe he was anything other

than a chicken. So he did everything that the other chickens did. He scratched around the yard looking for

grain, he tried his best to cluck, and he kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, even though the fence

around the pen wasn‟t more than several feet high. That went on until he towered over his would-be

siblings and adopted mother hen. Then one day an eagle flew over the chicken yard. The young eagle

heard its cry and saw it swoop down on a rabbit in the field. And at the moment, the young eagle knew in

his heart that he wasn‟t like the chickens in the yard. He spread his wing, and before he knew it, he was

flying after the other eagles. Not until he had seen one of his kinds flying did he know who he was or

what he was capable of doing.”

It is therefore expedient to instill in the young ones the spirit of self-awareness creation and self-

consciousness to enable them to soar high like eagles. The Ghanaian youth may sit down aloof in the

community because he/she has not been given any model lifestyle, and as a saying goes, the devil finds

work for an idle hand.


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Stakeholders Roles in Youth Empowerment and Development

The Role of Parents

“Train up a child in the way he should go (and in keeping with his individual gift or bent)

and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6)

“He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little” (G. Clason)

Parents should not make their children slaves by refusing to teach and train them to invest and live godly.

Parents should train their children to cultivate investment mentality right from infancy by opening an

investment account for their children just after theirNaming ceremony.

The Role of Family and Community Members

Family members who have made it in life should be caring and loving enough to visit their hometowns

regularly to mentor the youth in the locality or district. Area or District Level Mentorship and

Empowerment programme must be encouraged and established accordingly.

“Give back to your family, your community, your hometown and society in general. When

you identify an opportunity to give back to the family or community, your hometown or

society in general, do so willingly and cheerfully and the rewards of that act of love shall

surely come back to bless you…” (Agyekum-Addo,2014)

According to Agyekum-Addo (2014) the well-to-do in every family or community must learn to be

appreciative and thankful enough by contributing cheerfully and immensely either in cash or in kind to

the total development of the community.

The Role of the Government

The major role that the Government can play to fast track empowerment and development of the

Ghanaian youth is incorporation of mentorship and empowerment into Ghanaian tertiary institutions‟

programmes, as well as transforming the one year National Service to mandatory Mentorship and

Empowerment for all graduates of tertiary institutions, with the intention of ensuring efficient and

accelerated youth development in the country. It is therefore expedient for the Government to embark on

youth-centric programme of activities so as to fast-track youth development in Ghana. The former First

Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (2016), remarks, “Development

means a constant state of improvement”. According to her, without our leaders empowering the Ghanaian

youth to enjoy continuous and constant improvement or progress, they have wilfully let the Ghanaian

youth down.


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Etymologically, mentorship can be traced as far back from the Old and New Testament era, which is

scripturally significant. For examples: Moses mentored Joshua. Eli mentored Samuel. Elijah mentored

Elisha (1Kings 19:15-20, 2Kings 2:9). John the Baptist mentored Jesus. Jesus mentored his disciples

particularly Peter to succeed him (Matthew 4:18-22), Barnabas mentored Saul/Paul (Acts 9:26-27, 11:25-

26), and Paul mentored Timothy.

Paul the great Apostle said, “ …we dealt with you each of you as a father deals with his own children,

encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” (1Thessalonians 2:11-12)

“It is not hard to look at what others have and feel sorry for yourself for what you lack. But God gives

abilities, talents, and opportunities to each of us and expects us to use them wisely.” (DeSollar, 1998).

Self-realisation (fulfilment of personal potential) as a result of empowerment will lead to contentment,

thereby leading to individual contribution for accelerated national development.

The foregoing illustration emphasizes the fact that, no leader can be considered to be successful without

empowering his/her successor, simply because there is no success without an empowered successor.

Warren Buffet said, “If you tell me who your heroes are, I can tell you how you are going to turn out in

life.” Mentoring, according to Buffet, helps anyone to predict and know the future of the mentee

effortlessly, hence the importance of all and sundry, especially, stakeholders to embrace and enforce it

religiously in the country. “Show me a man without a mentor, and I will show you a man that may never

bear any trace of leadership” (Oyedepo, 2010). This emphasises the significance of mentoring to be the

gateway as well as the stepping stone to leadership. One cannot purport to be a leader without a mentor in

his or her life.

The Role of the Youth

“The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary.”(Vidal Sassoon)

The above quotation simply means that, hard work and diligence must be the lifestyle of the Ghanaian

youth if they really want to be empowered to enjoy all round balanced development in life. John D.

Rockefeller once said, “When work goes out of fashion, civilization will totter and fall”. It is time all

hands were put on deck to help the Ghanaian youth to become fully empowered and master of himself or

herself. A Greek philosopher Epictetus once said,

“No person is free who is not master of himself‟.

Without empowering the Ghanaian youth to experience real sustainable accelerated development, the

country cannot purport to be free or independent politically, economically, academically, socially and


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religiously. The Ghanaian youth must be helped to become master of himself or herself. It is therefore

expedient to adopt a definite process or means of attaining all round development that could be

represented as follows:

Fig. 1: Process of Trans-generational Development

Nurturing denotes educating learners formally and informally up to Secondary school level. Equipping

encompasses training learners or apprentices up to tertiary level or till passing out of apprenticeship.

Mentoring is practising, doing and demonstrating for the learner to imitate. Empowering is making the

learner or apprentice self-reliant and self-sufficient in all aspects of life. The above circle portrays that the

ultimate goal of empowerment is to attain development but without nurturing, equipping, training and

mentoring development would be a mirage.

Conclusion

The foregoing discussion unravels the undeniable practical means of empowerment such as nurturing,

training, equipping, mentoring and inculcating entrepreneurship into the Ghanaian youth for accelerated


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development as well as discouraging the youth from having their focus on getting employment or white-

collar job after their University education. All round empowerment can be the panacea for the countless

bribery and corruption in Ghana and in Africa as a whole. Once the youth are trained to have the fear and

love of God, they will naturally love people, and once our future leaders love the masses or people, they

will not usurp and squander state‟s funds. Empowering the youth to be focused and faithful will definitely

eliminate juvenile delinquency and all social vices in Ghana.

In other words, instilling in the youth with the spirit of self- actualisation and self-consciousness will

enable the youth to be focused in their career. In conclusion, the Ghanaian youth could be nurtured,

equipped, trained and empowered efficiently provided he or she is desirous to be empowered for

development. Leaders today must do away with personal aggrandisement and nepotism and mentor their

associates particularly the youth for accelerated development tomorrow. It is against this background that

we could agree with a Greek Philosopher Plutarch‟s remarks, “The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces

the rankest weeds”

References

Addo, M.A, (2014): The Seven Principles of Success and Wealth Creation, Kama Educational Project (KEP), Accra, Ghana

Aryee, P. (2016) Invitation To One Day Intensive Finance and Business School, The Kingdom Entrepreneurs Academy, UK.

DeSollar, K.,(1998): WWJD Stories for Teenagers, Honor Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Maxwell,J.C., (1995) :Developing The Leaders Around You, In Joy Inc. Maxwell, J.C., (1997) : Becoming a Person of Influence,

Maxwell Motivation, Inc. a California Corporation and Dornan International

Meyer, P.J., (1997): Leadership Management International, Inc., Waco, Texas, U.S.A.

Ohene-Kyei, (2015): Daily Graphic, Ghana, Page 91

Oyedepo, D.O., (2010): Exploits In Ministry, Dominion Publishing House, Canaan Land, Ota

Rawlings, N.K.A (2016): Face To Face 14th Prestigious Lectures on: Development, Politics and National Government: The Role

of the Youth, Ghana Technology University College

Sakyi K.A. (2015):“Ghanaian youth unemployment - Need for voluntarism, internship, apprenticeship, and self-employment

interventions?” Feature Article (ghanaweb.com- Daily Graphic)


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EXPERIENCING CHANGE THROUGH CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF GHANA TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE

Esi Akyere Mensah1, Derrick Ofori Donkor

2, Michael Owusu–Akomeah

3, Peter Lawer Angmor

4

1,2,3,4Ghana Technology University College


Abstract

This paper presents preliminary findings from an ongoing investigation into the effect of continuous professional

development (CPD) on the teaching of university lecturers. We sought to explore the experiences of lecturers who

have taken part in CPD and how these experiences had changed their teaching styles. Specifically, the objectives

were to inquire into their reason (s) for embarking on CPD, the types of CPD undertaken as well as the changes

that had been made in their teaching, learning and assessment practice as a result of their CPD. The study used

interviews as well as self-reflective reports to ascertain answers to these objectives from participants‟ perspectives.

This paper compares and determines the most important changes that have occurred in the teaching/learning at the

Ghana Technology University College and possible future impact that the changes may have on lecturers.

Keywords: Continuous Professional Development, Higher Education Teachers, Experiences, Change.

Introduction

lthough it is relatively new in academia, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has become

a growing research area in higher education (Clegg, 2003; Wood, 2010). Perhaps this interest has

been generated due to the increasingly complex and fast-paced environment of higher education today.

Aside the changing teaching landscape, university lecturers have to prepare their students with an array of

skills that they will need to find their place and contribute to this ever changing world (Eraut, 2000).

These conditions thus emphasise the necessity for the advancement of skills based methodologies in

teaching, learning and assessment. One way of meeting all these needs and developing professional

competence is „In Service Training‟ (INSET) or CPD as it is popularly termed. The value of CPD for

ensuring these competencies is established in the literature and practice (Gray, 2005; Jaafar, 2006;

European Union (EU), 2010; Othman & Dahar, 2011).

This paper presents preliminary findings from an ongoing investigation into the effect of continuous

professional development (CPD) on the teaching of some selected university teachers at the Faculty of IT

Business at the Ghana Technology University College. Our objectives were threefold; first, we inquired

A


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into lecturers‟ reason(s) for embarking on CPD, secondly, we sought to determine the most common

type(s) CPD undertaken and thirdly, we inquired into the changes that have occurred in their teaching,

learning and assessment practice because of CPD. This paper presents only part of the ongoing study and

it begins with a brief literature review on CPD in a higher education context. It then discusses some types

of CPD. The preliminary findings are then discussed and a conclusion drawn.

Literature review

CPD has been described as a structured process which emphasises „lifelong learning and professional

development‟ (Jaafar, 2006). It incorporates all activities that enhance the ability of university faculty to

become better instructors and perform multifaceted tasks such as -research, publication and administrative

activities (Jaafar, 2006). According to Guskey (2000: 16), it refers to “those processes and activities

designed to enhance the professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes of educators so that they might, in

turn, improve the learning of students”.

In spite of the accepted importance of CPD in higher education, CPD continues to be fragmented and

under-theorized in the literature (Kennedy, 2014). Existing literature fails to provide enough evidence and

approaches that can influence current practices (Goldacre, 2013). Furthermore, the extant literature

indicates that research has been dominantly on smaller cases in either district or regional contexts (Tatto,

2013). Existing empirical works seem to be restricted to particular local or national contexts (Ali, 2004;

Hökkä & Eteläpelto, 2014). This makes it difficult to appreciate findings especially because of

institutional and regional differences.

Many reasons have been given for the interest of teachers, institutions and educational regulatory bodies

in CPD. For institutions and national governing bodies, professional development of teachers is important

for institutional development and accreditation (Wood, 2010). In some instances, it is an obligation for

faculty members to take part in professional development because of contractual agreements with their

hiring institutions. However, it appears that the common reason given by most faculty members for taking

part in CPD is their desire to become better teachers (Guskey, 2002). This is because in addition to

increasing competencies, CPD offers the easiest route to career progression for many lecturers (Guskey,

2002).


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Types of CPD

CPD takes many forms and it is often context specific. For the purposes of this discussion, five main

types will be highlighted. These include: training, certification, cascade, coaching/mentoring and

communities of practice. The most popular type of CPD seems to be training.

As discussed by Kennedy (2014:237), the training model of CPD supports „skills-based, technocratic

view of teaching whereby CPD provides teachers with the opportunity to update their skills in order to be

able to demonstrate their competence‟. Such training programmes tend to be delivered off-site by an

expert. In spite of its popularity, this model of CPD has been critiqued for its disconnection from the

contemporary teaching and learning environment. This „one type fits all‟ kind of CPD is usually

organised by the lecturers‟ institution with the aim of fostering standardisation. Again, the trouble here is

that it may eclipse the necessity for lecturers to be pre-emptive in identifying and meeting their own CPD.

Despite its limitations, training provides an effective means of acquiring new knowledge, standards and

practices in a decontextualised manner (Hoban, 2002).

Another form of CPD is through the certification route. This kind of CPD focuses on the completion of

certificate programmes or what Kennedy (2014:238) refers to as „award bearing programmes of study –

usually, but not exclusively, validated by universities‟. Examples include terminal degrees such as a

doctor of philosophy degree (PhD) or postgraduate degree in higher education (PGCHE). Many

institutions favour this because not only does it make them look good for accreditation but also the

external validation is often seen as a mark of quality assurance. Debates exist about whether such

certification emphasises academic knowledge or practical knowledge. There are concerns that this kind of

CPD does little to impact the practical classroom practice (Wood, 2010; Kennedy, 2014).

The third type is the cascade type of CPD which involves individual lecturers attending „training events‟

and then „cascading or disseminating the information to colleagues‟ (Goodall, Day, Lindsay, Muijs, &

Harris, 2005; Kennedy, 2014:240). It is beneficial for institutions especially when there are difficulties

funding individuals to undertake CPD (Hayes, 2000). It is thus very useful where resources are limited

which is often the case for many higher education institutions in some developing countries. One

advantage of using this type of CPD lies in its potential for creating discourse within and among teaching

faculty. On the other hand, it has been suggested that what is passed on in the cascading process

emphasises skills and or knowledge but rarely focuses on values. This is an argument that is also

articulated by Nieto (2003).


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In recent times, emphasis has shifted from the individual level CPD to a collective approach as evidenced

by the „coaching/mentoring model‟ and the „community of practice models‟ (Cushion, Armour, & Jones,

2003; Kennedy, 2014:242).As the name suggests the coaching /mentoring model places emphasis on

some kind of apprenticeship and peer coaching among colleagues. So, for example, in some universities,

new lecturers are assigned to a senior member within the department. The purpose is for the senior

lecturer to mentor the junior and groom them as an academic. This hierarchal approach can present

challenges because of its inherent asymmetry of power, however when it involves a more „equitable‟

relationship between colleagues of equal rank, then it presents better outcomes where colleagues partner,

collaborate and reflect on current practices (Rhodes & Beneicke, 2002).

Perhaps the most interesting type of CPD is the one that focuses on community as proposed by Wengers‟

social learning theory (Kennedy, 2014). The basis of this model of CPD is fostered when institutions

design CPD programmes designed for groups of lecturers. Lecturers in such a group have the opportunity

to share experiences, abilities as well as their everyday challenges (Lee, 2005:40). This is asserted to have

a greater impact on changing lecturers‟ teaching (Lee, 2005:46). “Communities of practice” is a

requirement for scholarship and is at the centre of making students more adept to study (Wenger,

2000:229). These communities of practice evolve when people “engage in a process of collective learning

in a shared domain of human endeavor” (Wenger, 2007:1).

Similar to this kind of CPD, Walter and Briggs (2012) discussed the merits of collaborative CPD as

achieving better outcomes and discernable change over individual oriented CPD. Cordingley, Bell,

Thomason and Firth (2005) systematic review of seventeen studies of collaborative CPD found that when

lecturers engaged in collaborative CPD, there was improvement in students‟ scholarship, and in lecturers‟

performance, approaches and perspectives. Learning in a community of practice was found to be either a

positive/proactive or passive experience. This was contingent on the role played by the individual as a

member of the wider group (Kennedy, 2014). In addition, it is asserted that learning in in communities

fosters the creation of new knowledge.

Each of the above models describes dominant characteristics of different approaches to CPD. They should

be viewed as a spectrum of CPD models or forms. Kennedy (2014) considers the coaching/mentoring

approach and the communities of practice models as transformative types of CPD. It appears that these

two types of CPD are popular in Europe and America, where observation and coaching as well as the

sharing practice dominate (Caena, 2011). However, in developing countries such as Ghana, the first two

types; the training model and certification model seem to dominate.


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Experiencing change

The aim of many CPD programmes is to facilitate a positive change in lecturers‟ approaches and

perceptions. One of the flaws of many CPD programmes according to Guskey (2002) is their failure to

consider the progression of tutor change. This invariably may be a reason why some CPD programmes

may be ineffective.

Most of the time CPD activities are targeted at getting lecturers to change their beliefs about aspects of

their teaching and assessment processes or get them to like and adopt a particular syllabus design and or

invention like the use of technology enhanced teaching and learning (TEL). In the past, the assumption

was that CPD causes a change in lecturer‟s attitudes (Guskey, 1989; Lydon& King, 2009). In recent

times, an alternative model has been proposed by Guskey (2002) as illustrated in figure 1.

Fig. 1: A Model of Lecturer Change Source: Guskey (2002)

The idea is that changes in lecturers‟ attitudes and perceptions will occur after they see a positive impact

of CPD on student learning. Thus, the new thinking is that CPD leads to specific changes in lecturers

teaching and assessment practices, which is expected to positively impact student learning which then

leads to changes in lecturers‟ attitudes and perceptions (Guskey, 2002). This model of change posits that

change is principally an experienced based learning process. For instance, if a lecturer has a problem with

students‟ use of smart phones during class but undergoes CPD and learns about the use of smartphones as

a teaching and learning tool using technology enhanced learning (TEL), then the successful use of

technological tools such as Padlet or Socrative (to take class polls or quizzes) to increase students‟

engagement can bring about a change in attitude about students‟ engagement in the classroom. In this

instance, there is a change in the lecturers‟ attitude about smartphones only if this activity proves to be

effective. Only then will it be continued (Lydon and King, 2009). Thus, following any type of

professional development, it is expected that a chain reaction is set in motion where change in teaching

and learning practices leads to change in their attitudes and perceptions, which in turn causes an

CONTINUOUS

PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

CHANGE IN

LECTURERS

ATTITUDES


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improvement in learning outcomes. One main important aspect of this process especially in its efforts to

facilitate change is the order in which these results usually occur.

The literature supports this assumption though other contextual factors always play a role. Carpenter,

Fennema, Peterson, Chiang and Loef (1989) found that CPD programmes rooted in the relevant areas of

specializations or subject areas of tutors as well as those that emphasize students‟ learning have a major

impact on student academic performance. Sedova, Sedlacek and Svaricek (2016) found positive

association between professional development and increased student classroom participation. In another

study, Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman and Yoon (2001) surveyed a nationally representative sample of

tutors, and their study found that tutors were more likely to improve their modes of subject preparation,

delivery and acquire more subject knowledge as well as improve their teaching when their CPD is linked

to their daily realities in the classroom. In addition to specific subject matter information, their CPD must

also cover and be conformed to standards and assessments (Gorlewski & Gorlewski, 2012).

Available empirical evidence also implies that there is a positive correlation between the amount of time

tutors spend on professional development, and the degree of change to their practices. Although having

enough time engaged in CPD activities is essential, studies show that, more time does not necessarily

culminate in successful changes in the classroom especially if the activities do not focus on the

tutors‟specific subject-matter (Desimone, Smith and Ueno, 2006: 209). Most of the studies on CPD in the

Ghanaian context have not looked at the change to practice and the change to perspectives of lecturers

who undertake CPD. Existing studies such as that of Adanu (2007) have focused on university staff

(librarians) and not teaching faculty. There seems to be a deafening silence on CPD among teaching

faculty in higher education in Ghana. The study thus contributes to this knowledge gap by making an

inquiry into the experiences of teaching faculty in higher education in a Ghanaian context using the

faculty of IT Business of Ghana Technology University College.

Methodology

Most of the studies on CPD have predominately used quantitative methods (Essel, Badu, Owusu-Boateng

& Saah, 2009; Hismanoglu, 2010). Some qualitative studies such as that of Steyn (2008) and Wood

(2010) however underscore the importance of qualitative methods in studying CPD. Quantitative studies

utilised questionnaires while qualitative studies have used various types of interviews and review of

documents such as educational policies and reports. The present study utilised interviews and self-

reflective reports to assess the changes that occurred in the teaching of lecturers at the Faculty of IT

Business at the Ghana Technology University College.


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Sampling

The unit of inquiry for the study was colleague lecturers in the faculty of IT Business at the Ghana

Technology University College. The Business faculty has full time faculty strength of 36. Out of these, 28

are males while 8 are females. The study employed convenience sampling to select and interview seven

lecturers out of the 36 faculty members. This choice of convenience sampling was based on lecturers‟

willingness to participate in the study as it was voluntary as well as the fact that it allowed for easy

collection of data within a relatively short space of time. Only faculty members who were willing to grant

access to their self-reflective reports and who acquiesced to be interviewed became part of the study. Four

out of the seven faculty members provided self-reflective reports.

As a result of this choice of sampling, the participants in the study were predominately male (6) with 1

(one) female. Even though this is reflective of the high male dominance in the business school, it is

conceded as a limitation of this study. The youngest respondent was the female participant who was 30

years old and the oldest 52 years. Participants interviewed had spent between 2 to 12 years in higher

education.

The interview lasted for 20 minutes for each of the respondents. Permission was sought from participants

to have the interviews recorded. The transcribed interviews were then imputed into QDA Miner, a

qualitative analysis tool in order to generate relevant themes based on our research objectives.

Preliminary findings

Types of CPD undertaken

All the seven participants indicated that they had undertaken at least one CPD since they started teaching

at the Ghana Technology University College. Most of the CPD activities undertaken in Ghana

Technology University College were composed of institution-supported programmes such as training,

workshops/ seminars and certificate/diploma courses on; effective teaching and assessment practices and

the use of technology enhanced learning. The most popularly cited certification was the Postgraduate

Certificate in Higher Education (PG Cert), which is run by one of the Ghana Technology University

College‟s transnational education partners.

“I took part in the PG cert and I learnt about running my courses online, running online

assessment and delivering lecture online through a synchronous approach. They ran


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other programs on teaching effectiveness in 2016 and there was certification for that”

(Mr. A, 6 years in H.E).

“It was on teaching effectiveness in 2016. The focus was on how to use modern teaching

techniques and how to do effective assessment. Concerning assessments, we were taught

more about the multiple choices type of assessment especially how to set multiple-choice

questions” (Mr. L, 5 years in H.E).

Participants indicated that the CPD programmes that they had taken part were institution supported

programmes. For some faculty, the institution funded these programmes. Beyond the institution-

supported programmes, other individual initiatives towards CPD existed. Primarily, the pursuit of

terminal degrees:

“As for me, I am doing my PhD and funding it myself…. Many people are doing their PhD in

order to develop themselves…” (Mr. E, 6 years in H.E).

“The CPD I am doing is to enable me to get a terminal degree, so I am back to the

classroom at this age pursuing it” (Mr. W, 5 years in H.E).

Other CPD activities mentioned were attending conferences and engaging in subject associations;

“I am also part of a professional body. I am a chartered accountant with the Institute of

Chartered Accountants, Ghana” (Mr. L, 5 years in H.E).

“I keep myself abreast with developments in the field, conferences, and gatherings I

attend” (Dr. D., 12 years in H.E).

Motivation for CPD

Participants espoused different reasons for partaking in CPD activities. The two most frequently

mentioned motivations included career development and enhancement and student engagement. The most

commonly expressed motivation was to keep abreast of innovations and technology in lieu of the

changing landscapes of H. E which was mentioned by all the seven participants;

“As a lecturer, the world is changing and I believe I should change my delivery too. So,

for example, if the school is coming up with a modern way to teach I feel it‟s a privilege

to attend such training so as to learn these new ways...” (Mr. A, 5 years in H.E).


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“My motivation is to keep abreast with the current practices because practices are

changing. Management is becoming more and more innovative everyday so you need to

be able to get to know the modern ways of doing things, you know, theories are

changing… research is coming up with new ideas and society is moving forward. We are

becoming a global world and so if we are not in tuned with what is happening globally

then it means that we will be left behind” (Dr. D, 12 years in H.E).

“I want to take advantage of any CPD opportunity because things keep changing and you

need to update yourself. And even some things that you even know when you are in a

workshop like that you can also share” (Dr. A, 9 years in H.E).

Others stated career enhancement as their motivation for CPD;

“I undertook to enhance my career and to enhance the work I do because I need to

improve what I do year by year so I would be better than last year” (Mr. L, 5 years in

H.E).

Mr. W for instance, stressed that he especially needed to develop himself as an educator because he was

not a professional teacher:

“I came from industry, I think if I am not a professional teacher, I must undertake CPD to

upgrade and update myself in terms of the teaching profession. Secondly I realised that I

am in academia to stay, I want to progress in the profession, these are some of the things

I have to do” (Mr. W, 5 years in H.E).

Another reason was to enable students‟ engagement:

“Again to be able to engage my students for my students to benefit more and to be

abreast with modern trends”(Mr. L, 5 years in H.E).

“For me, I am interested in getting my students to be the best version of themselves and I

realize that young people today require more interesting ways of teaching to keep them

attentive” (Ms. M, 5 ½ years in H.E).

Changes in teaching

Having undertaken various forms of CPD, the study found that most of the changes experienced were a

new perspective on teaching, learning and assessment in H.E. Some of the most important lessons learnt

bordered on understanding the use of processes, tools and new knowledge in teaching and learning. Most

significantly, an awareness of the learning needs of the students was a major eye-opener for many of the

participants. As reflected in the following extracts new perspectives about teaching and learning was a

key change for the participants:


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“Generally, my understanding of teaching and learning have greatly changed. I

now see learning to go beyond transfer of knowledge. My teaching now favours

active learning where my students are more involved in the learning processes”

(Mr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 5 years in H.E).

“…before the PGCERT programme, my teaching style has favoured surface

approach than deep approach to learning. The surface approach makes my

teaching concentrate more on complementing my tasks…”

(Mr. L, Self-Reflective Report, 5 years in H.E)

In particular, the importance of lesson planning seems to echo for most of the participants:

“Changes in my teaching and learning experiences include; preparation for class

session…. the change from preparing a course outline to course syllabus”

(Dr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 9 years in H.E)

There was a new awareness of the needs of the students‟ and most of the change focused on meeting

those needs. Lecturers knowing the students‟ difficulties in the class and being accessible and

approachable to them was important to most participants. Participants indicated that they employed

current practices thinking in H.E such as psychometric tests to learn about their students‟ preferred

learning styles. The following were their views:

“One such change is the use of psychometric tests and surveys to know the types of

learners and their preferred learning styles. I have become more aware of the need to

understand and work along with the dominant learning styles of students”(Ms. M, Self-

Reflective Report, 51/2

years in H.E).

“…however with the shift to deep learning approach, students are able to gain maximum

meaning from the studies…I now make myself more available to students. This led to me

increasing my office hours by 1.5 hours a week…‟(Mr. L, Self-Reflective Report, 5 years

in H.E).

“… Getting to know my students. I do „ice-breaking‟ to get a fair idea about the students

in the class, to tailor my teaching practices to suit their diverse learning experiences and

expectations”(Dr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 9 years in H.E).

“One major change, I have employed to my teaching skills is getting to know the students

I teach and how they learn” (Mr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 2 years in H.E).


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Some of the changes were also on assessment and feedback:

“I have also learnt to align my learning assessments with the learning outcomes for effectiveness

in terms of reliability and fairness” (Dr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 9 years in H.E).

“The way we examine students for the knowledge gained, I think that aspect we have not

changed much that is one thing we have to change. We still use the old established norms

to assess students and in the process we turn some good students to bad and some bad

students to good …” (Mr. W, 5 years in H.E).

“I have never considered the need for feedback on my teaching techniques and the

learning outcome before. However, after online learning of the module I found feedback

as very important to effective to best teaching methods for effective learning outcome”

(Dr. B, Self-Reflective Report, 4 years in H.E).

“Another change has been how quickly I give feedback. Using the post-it- notes method, I

am able to get quick feedback from students during and after the lecture” (Ms. M, Self-

Reflective Report, 5 ½ years in H.E).

“. Also, I have learnt the importance of assessing students‟ learning in both formative

and summative assessments as it has been indicated to be a good practice....”(Mr. M,

Self-Reflective Report, 5 years in H.E).

Others also focused on learning new theories about teaching in H.E;

“My participation in the post graduate certificate in higher education (PGCERT) greatly

helped me to understand more on teaching and learning theories and how to combine

and use different approaches to make the classroom attractive and interesting. Although I

have employed various practices in my teaching experience, the training program has

given me a more practical approaches which are grounded in and aligned with theories

about learning” (Mr. D, Self-Reflective Report, 2 years in H.E).

Furthermore, technology enhanced learning, has completely changed the perspective of some lecturers:

“In the past, the use cell phones and iPads by students in class was a distraction. Now, I

have come to appreciate how I can use them as tools to engage them. One such tool,

Socrative teacher, has changed how I assess student understanding and engagement

during the lecture. So far, I have used Socrative to introduce the lesson and take a

poll....”(Ms. M, Self-Reflective Report, 5 ½ years in H.E).


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Evidence of the Change

Some of the reflective reports gave evidence of the change in their practice. One participant had data to

support his claim of change. The data comprised student feedback, which was collated at the end of the

semester:

„70% of the students agreed that “they were happy with the learning experience with

enhanced knowledge of the module” …50% of the students agree the general method

delivery was good however only 40% agree to understand the tools for answering the

questions for a good grading” (Dr. B,Self-reflective report, 4 years in H.E).

Two lecturers had conducted research and published articles based on the knowledge acquired from their

CPD, specifically the Post Graduate Certificate in Higher education. One participant had worked on

classroom management while another worked on the merits of seen assessments:

„…when I did PG cert in 2006, I became aware of all these classroom things so I was

practicing them. I did my PG cert in the UK so I was using them in a new environment

where there was a need for me to find out if those classroom management practices can

still hold…I have even written an article, which is about classroom management. I

published that paper in March 2017. In fact, I collected the data in GTUC here …” (Mr.

E, 6 years in H.E).

“I actually worked on seen exams as a good way of examining students and I had a very

good result and I went further to publish” (Mr. W, 5 years in H.E).

In spite of the fact that all participants mentioned that they had undertaken some kind of training

concerning Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), only two reports evidenced this in their write up. The

evidence showed students‟ feedback, assessment and classroom management practices, and what actually

occurred in the classroom.

Action plans for future CPD

Participants mentioned some future plans for their CPD. The most commonly mentioned plan was the

pursuit of a terminal degree while two participants spoke about exploring Technology Enhanced Learning

(TEL). Two respondents indicated research and publication in contemporary issues in higher education as

a future goal.

“I want to acquire my Ph.D. to improve on my abilities and in solving problems related to

my field of interest. I look forward to securing funds for research in collaboration with

students and peers. This would aid build research portfolios that meet international

standards”(Self-Reflective Report, 2 years in H.E).


~ 79 ~


“I would like to explore further the use of technology in structuring the class, developing

lesson plans, measuring student performance as well as assessment and feedback. In the

future, I want to explore the use of more mobile classroom applications such as Class

flow and online portfolios for students to track their own learning” (Ms. M, Self-

Reflective Report, 51/2

years in H.E).

Others mentioned research and publication:

“I also intend to conduct research into student perspectives of their learning experiences

this year. I hope that I should be able to produce some conference papers and

publications out of it” (Self-Reflective Report, 51/2 years

in H.E).

Collaboration and community discourse were also points of future actions for participants:

“Collaboration with the head of the departments and the faculty dean with respect to the

institutional requirements must be our focus as lecturers. I plan to work with my head of

department to create on campus programs like entrepreneur clubs, ICT development

programs....” (Mr. D, 2 years in H.E).

“Finally, I recognise that joining the wider discourse through conferences and workshop will be

beneficial for my professional development and that of my students as well” (Ms. M, Self-

Reflective Report, 5 years in H.E).

Discussions

These preliminary findings confirm the interest of the higher education institution (GTUC) in

encouraging university lecturers to develop themselves (Wood, 2010; Kennedy, 2014). There seems to be

some good level of awareness about CPD among all the participants. Unlike what pertains to practice

elsewhere; however, there is yet to be the shift from the individual to collective CPD (Caena, 2011). It

appears that the certification and the training types of CPD dominate.

As indicated by the literature, the motivation for CPD is self-development and upgrade (Guskey, 2002;

EU, 2010). All participants recognised the fast paced environment of H.E and acknowledged the need to

keep up so as not to be „left behind‟. It is interesting that ensuring student outcomes was not explicitly

expressed as the major motivation for undertaking CPD. However, the findings showed that the changes

in teaching of lecturers stressed student outcomes.


~ 80 ~


It appears that the PG Cert in Higher Education run by GTUC‟s partner university has made some

positive impact on the teaching faculty. The changes experienced have been mainly shifts in the

understanding of effective teaching and learning. Thus, faculty experienced change in their understanding

of their students, and seem to have become more conscious of their needs. As indicated by the literature,

CPD programmes that address specific issues of teaching like classroom management, lesson planning

and design, grading and assessments are more beneficial in the long term (Gorlewski & Gorlewski, 2012).

As indicated by Guskeys (2002) model, some faculty members sought to test their new knowledge in their

classroom and based on the outcomes for their students, there was a change in their attitudes and

perspectives. Thus, the study confirms the suitability of the model in this context.Unlike what was

recommended by Carpenter et al. (1989), the CPDs organised by the institution were found to be generic

focusing on teaching methods and the use of TEL but not rooted in subject matter. Perhaps, this should be

one of the areas for further studies.

Conclusion

University teachers and their institutions recognise the importance of CPD in keeping up with the

changing demands of H.E. At the Ghana Technology University College, the most dominant CPD model

is training and certification. Certification seems to have made the most discernable impact on teachers as

evidenced by the changes experienced.The study recommends that, academic institutions consider

fostering communities of practice to engender dialogue among teaching faculty. The coach/ mentoring

and communities of practice type of CPD should be explored as a type of CPD. Again, there appears to be

an absence of CPD based on subject matter. It would be interesting to consider the possibilities for such

CPD in the future. Future studies can look into the place of students‟ concerns as a motivation for CPD.

Again, a longitudinal study that chronicles the progression of students that their teachers/lecturers

undertake different types of CPD would be a worthwhile endeavor.

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SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A WEB-BASED

RASPBERRY PI HOME AUTOMATION

Francis Kwabena Oduro-Gyimah1 and Stephen Asomaning

2

1,2 Ghana Technology University College


Abstract

Home automation is the use of one or several and varied electronic components to control some basic home

appliances and other features remotely and automatically. Home automation is an interesting field of study

especially using new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) whereby homeowners can automate some

basic home functions and features over the internet or IP connectivity. Homeowners in Ghana lack alarm systems or

advanced security systems which account to burglary attempts against several homes. The purpose of this study is to

design and construct a web-based home automation system using the Raspberry pi 3 as the main control device. The

raspberry pi 3 is employed as an interface between the other hardware components and the software of the system

which can be connected to several peripherals using the SD card slot, GPIO, USB ports, HDMI, the raspberry pi

camera port and Ethernet or Wi-Fi connectivity. The designed flexible home automation system is configured with

monitoring function, intruder alarm systems and control of devices remotely over the internet using a web browser

from a computer or android smart phone. The results indicated that the homeowner can detect an intruder via

email, view images of the intruder on the webpage, monitor activities in the house through the USB camera and

switch a device from the webpage over internet. The designed raspberry pi 3 was able to provide a degree of

security, safety, and comfort for homeowners.

Keywords: Raspberry pi 3, Home automation, Passive Infrared, Internet of Things

Introduction

ome automation commonly known as a “smart home”, is the use of one or several and varied

electronic components to control some basic home appliances and other features remotely and

automatically (Lobaccaro, Carlucci and Löfström, 2016). The protection of homes and getting greater

access has been a driving factor of communication. The theory of home automation started as far back in

the 1970s (Jose and Malekian, 2015). Even though there has been a tremendous improvement in

technology in recent years, homeowners continue to struggle when it comes to control, access and

protecting their homes.

According to a study conducted by Greichen (1992), home automation is a field bedeviled with high

manufacturing cost, high development costs, high installation costs, additional service and support costs,

H


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lack of standards, consumer un-accustomedness with technology, and complex user interfaces. On the

contrary, Palaniappan et al. (2015) and Gunge and Yalagi (2016) pointed out that with varied technologies

in the implementation of home automation systems, challenges are being addressed with the introduction

of new protocols, communication and interface standards. Recently, people spend more time at their work

places than staying home. Hence, the need to acquire an alternative means of providing security and

making the homes safe and secured.

According to the United State Department of Diplomatic Security (OSAC) report in 2013, the overall

crime rate of Ghana is high (Anon., 2013a). Considering Accra in particular, the rate of burglary on a

scale of 1-100, is at 46.05. Similar reports in 2014, 2015 and 2016 maintained the same high rate (Anon.,

2016). OSAC reported that, there were burglary attempts in an expatriate residence, but perpetrators

generally lacked the sophistication to overcome the home alarm systems and static security guards.

Employing fulltime security personnel is expensive. This can cost $100 or more per month (Anon., 2016).

This raised a question on how one without static security guards and limited budget can make home

unsafe to live. In another study of crime incident by Anon. (2013b) from April to June, armed robbery

recorded 10% out of the four crimes investigated.

According to the Ghana Police Service, 1, 235; 1,116 and 1,411 robbery cases were recorded in 2013,

2014 and 2015 respectively (Anarfi, 2016). Our smart homes should be sustainable and should give us

signals of intruders. Home automation include remote mobile control, automated light, automated

thermostat adjustment, scheduling appliances, mobile, email and text notification and remote video

surveillance.

This study focuses on the design of Web-Based Home Automation System, with the use of the Internet to

monitor and control some basic home devices. The system will aid homeowners to get greater access and

control of their homes.

Literature Review

Home automation is the controlling of home appliances and domestic items and ensure its safety by the

use of remote access through the Internet. (Gunge and Yalagi, 2016). Home automation cuts across

several technologies from Raspberry pi, Arduino microcontroller, web-based, email-based, Bluetooth-

based, X10 (Jose and Malekian, 2015), Ultra-wideband (Obaid et al., 2014), GSM-based, ZigBee based

(Kumar and Singh, 2014), Dual Tone Multi Frequency-based, cloud-based, Z-wave (Knight, 2006 and


~ 86 ~


Amaro et al., 2011) Insteon (Bhatia, Bajaj and Roja, 2014), LonTalk (Jose and Malekian, 2015), and the

Internet (Gunge and Yalagi, 2016). However, Bluetooth (Ryan, 2013; Kanma et al., 2003), WiFi

(ElShafee and Hamed, 2012), and ZigBee are the popular choice for the backbone of such systems

(Lobaccaro, Carlucci and Löfström, 2016;Palaniappan et al. 2015; Gill et al., 2009; ).

Obaid et al. (2014) designed a voice controlled wireless smart home system for the elderly and disabled

people using ZigBee. Sriskanthan. Tan and Karande (2002) implemented home based security system

using Bluetooth technology. The development is in line with finding solutions to the challenges we

encounter in our security systems.

Obaid et al. (2014) and Zanella et al. (2014), wrote about the popularity of the Home automation systems

inrecent times. ElShafee and Hamed (2012) implemented home automation system using Wi-Fi

technology. Sarthak, Anant and Goyal (2014) used Raspberry pi to design home automation system.

Piyare and Tazil (2011), used Bluetooth technology to design a home automation system. Palaniappan et

al. (2015) carried out a literature survey of home automation systems. Jose and Malekian (2015) provided

a comprehensive literature survey of the home automation system and technologies from a security point

of view. Raspberry pi 3 combines the power of PC, communication and multimedia technologies to

manage and control systems without human intervention (Ganesh and Khan, 2015). Ganesh and Khan

(2015), compared Raspberry pi home automation system with available commercial home automation

system and concluded it is better than the commercial type. Rao and Uma (2015) combined Raspberry Pi

and smart phone to control door sensor, light switches and camera to stream live video. Maslekar et al.

(2015) considered smart lighting system with the use of Raspberry Pi.

In another study, Navedeti et al. (2016), designed patient monitoring system parameters using Raspberry

Pi. Hadwan and Reddy (2016,) implemented a smart home control system by using Raspberry Pi and

Arduino UNO. The system has been established to be less expensive and scalable and therefore applicable

to many monitoring systems.

Methodology

Hardware Design Concept

The hardware design consists of the block diagram of the Raspberry pi 3 Web-Based Home Automation

System and the description of the various components. The block diagram of the design is shown in figure

1. The Raspberry Pi 3 is interfaced with a motion sensor, a camera and a relay.The raspberry pi 3 serves as

a client which is interfaced with the raspberry pi camera, Passive Infrared (PIR) motion sensor, one


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channel relay and USB Camera. The main purpose is to serve as the control unit running on a python

program. It runs on a Raspbian Operating System (OS). The Raspbian OS is a set of basic programs and

utilities that make the Raspberry pi 3 to execute commands.

Fig. 1: Block Diagram of Raspberry Pi 3 Web-based Home Automation System

Description of Components

This section gives the description of the components used.

Raspberry PI 3

The raspberry pi 3 is a third generation of the raspberry pi. Figure 2 shows the board. It has a 1.2GHz 64-

bit quad-core, ARMv8 CPU and 802.11n wireless LAN. Raspberry pi is a series of credit card-sized and a

single-board computer (Sarthak, Anant and Goyal, 2014). Several generation of the Raspberry PI have

been released which include the Raspberry PI 1, model A and B, A+, B+, PI 2, PI 3 and the PI zero.

Basically, all these models have a Broadcom system on a chip with an Advanced Reduced Instruction Set

Computer (RISC) Machine known as the ARM, compatible Central Processing Unit (CPU) and a chip

Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). The CPU speed ranges from 700MHz - 1.2GHz for the PI 3 and on board

memory range from 256MB – 1GB RAM. It has a Secured Digital Card which is used to store the

Operating System (OS) and program-memory, the “High Capacity Secure Digital Card” (HCSD).The chip


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specifically provides High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)and most boards have between one

and four Universal Serial Bus (USB) slots.

Fig. 2: The Raspberry PI 3 Source: Sarthak, Anant and Goyal, 2014

It also has a phone jack for audio and a lower level output which is provided by a number of General-

purpose Input and Output (GPIO) pins. The B models have an 8P8C Ethernet port and the PI 3 has

onboard WIFI 802.11n and Bluetooth. The Raspberry PI promotes python and scratch as the main

programming language. It also provides Rasbain, Debian based Linux distribution for download as well as

third party Ubuntu, Windows 10 IoTcore and RISC operation system.

The Raspberry PI 3 board contains a single 40-pin expansion header labelled as J8 providing

access to 28 GPIO pins and also has the power, ground UART, I^2, SPI, and GPIO.


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Fig. 3: General Purpose Input/Output Layout of the Raspberry Pi 3

Source: (Gregory, 2016)

Power: It pulls power directly from the Raspberry PI 3

Ground: They are the pins used to ground the devices and they are all connected to the same line

Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter (UART): These are serial pins that are mainly

used to communicate with other devices.

Inter-Integrated Circuit(I2C): are the pins that allow the system to connect and communicate to

hardware modules that support I2C protocol.

Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI): are the pins that connect and communicate to hardware

modules that support SPI protocol.

General Purpose Input and Output (GPIO): Standard pins used to turn devices on and off.

BCM2835: It is the Broadcom chip used in the Raspberry PI.

Wiring Pi: It is a PIN based GPIO access library written in C for BCM2835 used in the Raspberry

Pi. This can be programmed as either digital outputs or inputs.


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Secure Digital Card (SD Card)

The SD card is used to store the operating system of the (Raspbian OS) needed to run the raspberry pi 3

and also store the sever codes and python codes used to control the objects connected to it.

PIR Motion Sensor

The passive infrared (PIR) sensor detects motions of intruders in the detection range. It consists of a

Fresnel lens, an infrared detection and supporting detecting circuitry. The function of the lens is to detect

an infrared radiation present around it. The sensor detects a motion and the feedback is sent to the user via

email.

Female to Male and Male to Male Jumper Wire

They are commonly used with the breadboard which transfers electrical signals from the breadboard to the

main controller (raspberry pi 3) are used to interface the components to the Raspberry pi 3.

One Channel Relay

Relays are electromechanical devices that give the raspberry pi 3 the ability to control high voltage

devices.

USB Camera

The USB camera is used to stream live video or monitor activities in the house. The Raspberry Pi camera

is used to take pictures of the intruder as the motion sensor detects an intruder.

Raspberry PI Camera

Android studio is the official Integrated Development Environment for Android application development,

used to develop the Remote-Control application to access the Home Automation System over the internet.

Software Design Concept

This section discusses the development stages of the software design. The software architecture was

implemented as shown in figure 4.


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Fig. 4: Software Architecture

Fig 5: Operation of Detection Devices

The flowchart of the detection devices is shown in figure 5. The remaining sections describe the software

and programming languages used for the study and processes that are involved in the setting up of the

Raspberry PI 3.

The raspberry PI 3 is hooked up with its necessary peripherals such as the USB camera, PIR motion

sensor, Power supply, one channel relay and Raspberry PI camera.


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Configuring the Raspberry PI 3

Configuration is done on the raspberry pi 3 to carry out its functions. These include installing the raspbian

operating system, configuring of the raspberry Pi camera and USB camera, configuring the database and

configuring the raspberry pi 3 web server.

Software Used for the Study

Android Studio: Android studio is the official Integrated Development Environment for Android

application development used to develop the Remote-Control application to access the Home Automation

System over the internet.

Notepad ++: It is used to write the code for the Home Automation System Web design and saving the

codes in default extension („.php‟, „index.html‟)

IDLE Python: Integrated Development Environment or Learning Environment for writing Python codes

and running the codes.

RealVNC viewer: It is Virtual Network Computing software for sharing graphical desktop remotely to

control another computer. It controls the raspberry pi 3 remotely and view the graphical desktop interface

of the raspberry pi 3 on the computer.

HTML5: It is the fifth version of the HTML Standard for structuring and presenting the content on the

webpage (worldwide web).

PHP Programming Language: It is originally derived from Personal Home Page Tool which is

Hypertext Preprocessor. It is the server scripting language for creating the dynamic webpages of the

system.

Apache Web Server: It is designed to create the web servers that have the ability to host one or more

HTTP-based websites.

MySQL Database: MySQL is an open source relational database management system that uses

structured query language to store information in tables, thus tables for the username and password and

the relay switch of the system.


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JavaScript: It is a full-fledged dynamic programming language applied to the HTML document to

provide dynamic interactivity on the website. It is also used to develop the android application base on the

system.

The relay control of the system over the Web interface is illustrated in figure 6.

Fig 6: Relay Control over Web Interface

Results and Discussions

Figure 7 shows the login interface of the webpage of the system access through its IP or localhost on a

computer. The users would have to insert a username and a password to access and get control of the

system.

Figure 8 shows the home page of the system thus the dashboard where the user can get access to the menu

or the control; relay switch, video stream and the images taken by the Pi camera during the detection of

intruder by the PIR motion sensor.


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Fig.7: Image of the login interface of the system

Fig. 8: Homepage of the System

Figure 9 shows the images taken from the Raspberry Pi 3 camera during the detection of the intruder. The

images are stored on the system and can be accessed over the webpage of the system.


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Fig. 9: Pictures taken for the Raspberry Pi Camera

Figure 10 and figure 11 show the interface of the relay switch from the web page which is connected to

the database. The user controls the device over IP or Internet by turning on/off the light.

Fig. 10: Relay Switch at its on State


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Fig.11: Relay Switch at its off State

Fig. 12: Live Stream from the USB Camera Connected to the System

Figure 12 shows the live stream from the USB camera connected to system. This function enables the user

to monitor activities in the house through live stream over IP.


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Fig. 13: User Interfaces of the Webpage of the System Using Android Application on Android Phone

The image in figure 13 shows the interfaces of the webpage accessed for the mobile application on the

android phone where the user can get control over the relay switch, view images of the PI camera as well

as the live stream.

Fig. 14: Motion detection Code Running in Python Shell


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Fig. 15: Intruder Alert Notification through Email

As the motion sensor detects motion, an email notification is sent to the user email address (figure 15) and

the PI camera takes pictures and stores it in a folder which can be accessed over the webpage of the

system.

The relay code running in python shell and the connection to the database of the system where the relay

switch can be controlled over the web interface is shown in figure 16.

Figure 17 shows the Raspberry Pi 3 system with the PI camera, PIR motion sensor, USB camera and the

one channel relay connection. The image shows the off state of the relay when controlled over IP or

Internet from the webpage.


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Fig. 16: Relay Code Running in Python Shell

Fig. 17: Image of the System Showing the Bulb‟s off State

Figure 18 shows the on state of the relay attached to GPIO of the Raspberry Pi 3 when controlled over IP

or Internet from the webpage of the system


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Fig. 18: Image of the system showing the on state of the bulb

The study employed the Raspberry PI 3 Web-Based Home Automation System to help homeowners

monitor the activities of intruders. The system is able to capture images and video of intruders in the

home. This is in agreement with earlier works by Rao and Khan (2015) and Maslekar et al. (2015).

Hadwan and Reddy (2016) also used Raspberry Pi in monitoring and for data collection applications.

The Raspberry Pi 3 system was able to control a device in the home over the internet. This is illustrated in

figure 12, figure 17 and figure 18 respectively.

In accordance with an earlier study done by Prasadet al. (2014), the design captures information of the

intruder and sends it through a mobile network by applying web application, to the smart phones of the

user.

Conclusion

The study has successfully designed and implemented a web based raspberry pi 3 home automation

system which is able to detect an intruder, sends feedback to the user and takes pictures of the intruder

simultaneously. The system stores the pictures of the intruders.

The system is able to send feedback to the user‟s email address, and stream live video with the USB

camera over the internet. The images or pictures of the intruders are also accessible over the Internet


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through the webpage with login interface of the system. These measures are in line to strengthen the

security system and enjoy a sound life.

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STRATEGIC COLLABORATIONS AT A TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

AND INNOVATION CENTRE IN GHANA

Prince Obeng Lokko1, Mark Ofori Nketia

2 , Kofi Bobi Barimah

3

1,2,3Ghana Technology University College


Abstract Nearly five years ago, the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) responded to a call for proposals by the

Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) and the Ministry of Environment, Science,

Technology and Innovation (MESTI) under Component 2 of the Ghana Skills and Technology Development Project

(GSTDP). Funding received was used in the establishment of the Technology Research and Innovation Centre

(TRIC) for technology and market-oriented research with an overarching goal of transferring technology to the

public and industry. Ghana Technology University College is committed to bridging the gap between academia and

industry, and the establishment of TRIC transformed this vision into reality. Nine projects were selected from

presentations made at workshops by researchers from our academic faculties (i.e., Faculty of Computing and

Information Systems, Faculty of IT Business and Faculty of Engineering) in collaboration with their private industry

partners. Thus, the implementation of the projects entailed cross-institutional collaborations between GTUC,

COTVET and MESTI with the involvement of the private sector. This paper discusses the processes and outcomes of

the implementation of the TRIC projects with recommendations for the sustainability of TRIC.

Keywords: Technology Transfer, Research, Innovation, Collaboration.

Introduction

he Technology Research and Innovation Centre (TRIC) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the

Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) in Accra. Its activities cover the field of innovation,

entrepreneurship, knowledge creation and economic growth. In June 2013, the Council for Technical and

Vocation Education and Training (COTVET) and the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and

Innovation (MESTI), through its Ghana Skills and Technology Development Programme (GSTDP),

called for the establishment and support for market-oriented programmes under component 2 of the

GSTDP. This initiative was intended to benefit GSTDP-funded research and development of investments

in technology. GTUC became a beneficiary of a grant from that call. GTUC is building upon its legacy of

training in telecommunication; and transferring knowledge and skills development research for public

benefit in telephony and other telecommunication infrastructural products.

To continue this legacy of public benefit, GTUC responded to the MESTI-COTVET call. On December

2, 2013, GTUC signed a grant agreement with MESTI-COTVET to establish a research and innovation

T


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centre for technology development and skills training. As a spinoff goal, GTUC established the

Technology Research and Innovation Centre (TRIC) for technology to the public and industry. TRIC‟S

focus is to coordinate and strategically transfer its intellectual assets, as well as broader mechanisms (such

as publication of scientific data and cooperative research projects) that also contribute significantly to the

realization of public benefits from TRIC‟S research and development work.

This paper discusses the processes and outcomes of the implementation of the TRIC projects with

recommendations for the sustainability of TRIC. First, technology and innovation in education is

discussed. Second, the establishment of the Technology Research Innovation Centre is presented. Third,

our strategic cross-institutional collaborations is outlined, followed by a description of the innovative

projects at TRIC. Then, the paper presents and discusses technology transfer issues. This paper concludes

with the observation that will be used to create products, services, cascading innovations, and other

discoveries to fuel the nation‟s economic engine and improve the quality of life.

Technology and Innovation in Education Education is seen as one of the most conservative social systems and public policy fields. Innovative

technologies could help boost the nature of education, and also give more "value for money" high

demands and pressure on expenses. In few nations (i.e. USA, Canada and UK), imaginative and

mechanical change has been executed without the care and industriousness required or the suitable prior

testing, experimentation and assessment. In the modern knowledge economy, the entrepreneurial

university is regarded by many as a central force that drives innovation, creativity, technology transfer,

research commercialization and economic growth (Fayolle and Redford, 2014).

The problem of productivity and efficiency in education is considerably all the more striking when

education is contrasted with other open arrangement segments, which have raked huge productivity gains

in past decades. In sectors such as education, technology and innovation has been a major driver of

increased productivity and efficiency with much improved outcomes even if the cost has also gone up.

Today‟s educational systems are required to be both effective and efficient, or in other words, to reach the

goals set for them while making the best use of available resources (Cornali, 2012). Learning in the 21st

century has moved towards innovative, open, and flexible learning environments which are supported by

research carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2013).

Numerous onlookers such as Serdyukov (2017) and Crichton (2015) ask why huge advances in

technology and innovation have not yet prompted comparable enhancements in education, technology and

innovation, mainly information and communications technology (ICT), to schools. Based on literature


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reviews by Anderson et al. (2014) many authors have attempted to identify factors affecting creativity and

innovation. Core factors found include relevant knowledge, cognitive ability and thinking skills,

personality and motivation, interactions between individuals and culture.

Innovation and Technology in Economies and Societies Innovation is generally understood as the successful introduction of a new thing or method (Brewer and

Tierney, 2012). The term, “innovation” has been consistently defined as the adoption of idea or behavior

that is new to the organization (Bon & Mustafa, 2013). Innovation seems to have two subcomponents.

First, there is the idea or item which is novel to a particular individual or group and, second, there is the

change which results from the adoption of the object or idea. Innovation is one of the most important

sources of competitive advantage (Abidin et al, 2013). Technology and innovation all in all has been

progressively viewed as a pivotal factor in keeping up aggressiveness in a globalized economy.

Technology and innovation can inject freshness into dormant markets, and be a platform to help improve

organization‟s capacity to adjust to modern dynamic environment. For example, the emergence of the

internet and high-bandwidth computer technologies started a fourth generation of distance education,

bringing about new possibilities and a faster pace of change. Scholars and practitioners have become

increasingly interested in innovation in the public sector (Walker, 2014).Organizations need to develop

and utilize innovation so as to match up to market competition by presenting new items or products,

administrations and enhancing the quality of their process and products and authoritative courses of

action, or improving advertisement of their products to ensure their survival. Recently, policy interest has

extended this “innovation and technology imperative” from private organizations to the provision of

public services, albeit public policies, including education, tend neither to work inside focused markets

nor have similar motivations to improve and utilize innovation as organizations do, there are essential

contentions to push for advancement and innovation in education to maximize the value of public

investment.

Technology can help facilitate innovations at the local context by bringing new ideas to educators,

documenting and sharing practices, and connecting with other schools and professionals around the globe.

However, creativity is also seen as the building block for innovation. Creativity is considered as a

precious asset for solving individual, organizational and social problems and achieving sustainable

development (Barbot, Besançon, and Lubart, 2015). Innovation without creativity leads to a situation

where only technicians are produced and not visionaries.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/padm.12209/full#padm12209-bib-0060


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How can innovation and technology add value in the case of education? Most importantly, educational

advancements and innovation can enhance learning results and the nature of education arrangement. For

instance, changes in the educational framework or in showing strategies can help customize the

educational process. According to Owusu-Ansah (2015) in Ghana, “the one child one laptop programme”

of the Government significantly improved students‟ knowledge in Information Communications

Technology (ICT). New patterns in customized learning depend vigorously on better approaches for

sorting out schools and the utilization of ICT.

Second, education is perceived in most countries as a means of enhancing equity and equality.

Innovations and the use of technology can help enhance equity in the access to and the use of education,

as well as equality in learning outcomes. As pointed out by Bocconi et al (2012), there is a reciprocal

relationship between innovation and education.

Third, public organizations are regularly under as much pressure as organizations try to enhance

effectiveness, limit costs and amplify the "value for the money". There has been a tendency for costs in all

public services to rise faster than those in the rest of the economy, and education is no exception. Inherent

to any public service provision which faces ever-rising labour costs and limited scope for transformative

productivity gains, may also be due to lack of innovation and technology usage. Innovation and

technology, then, can stimulate more efficient provision of these services.

Education remains crucial even with fast changes in society and in the national economy. The education

sector must introduce the changes it needs to adapt to societal needs. For example, education systems

need to adapt teaching, learning or organizational practices that have been identified as helping to

foster “skills for innovation and technology”.

The education sector should acquaint itself with the progressions it needs to adjust to societal

requirements. For instance, education frameworks need to adapt to teaching, learning or authoritative

practices that have been recognized as promoting "skills for technology and innovation".

Establishment of Technology Research Innovation Centre (TRIC)

TRIC is established to be a centre of excellence in cutting-edge research and innovative technology that

will promote world class research in technology. TRIC has five units which are responsible for research

grants, contracts and awards, policy, training and communication, research administration/business unit,

technology transfer and research ethics and compliance.


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The objective of the centre is divided into five focused areas as follows:

a. Staff Development.

b. Support Faculty/Industry Research and Development (R&D),

c. To provide product incubation support.

d. For monitoring, evaluation and sustainability and

e. Dissemination.

Staff Development

As part of the TRIC project, support staff, research faculty and industry teams of the centre were taken

through some training programmes on Events Management, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel,

Technology Transfer training, Proposal Writing, Performance Measurement Framework, Training on

Intellectual Property, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship and Project Management.

Research and Development

Driven by transliteration research, the centre identified student-industry problems that translated to

testable products for development. The centre is also involved in identifying industry-specific problems as

a basis for research activities, formation of project teams; provide incentives to faculty for research

activities; selection of industry experts to evaluate outstanding projects that lead to incubation-level

refinement and deployment into the private sector.

Product Incubation Support

The centre provides platform support within TRIC to convert R&D products into industrial quality

prototypes. Platform support includes funding faculty research, conducting workshops and providing

specialized training to research teams on such areas as: prototyping, entrepreneurship training,

business/strategic plan preparation, and marketing. The centre also provides support centre for technology

transfer activities. TRIC supports collaborative projects to maximize the impact on the private sector and

expands the research capacity at the national level. TRIC also provides support services for SMEs,

including start-ups in areas such as: business plan development, strategic plan development, budgeting,

proposal writing, licensing and agreements, contracts, intellectual property (IP) protection and legal

support.


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Monitoring, Evaluation and Sustainability

The centre has established a feedback mechanism to track, monitor, and evaluate projects that resulted in

technology transfer and improving project methodologies. The centre has developed a five year

sustainability plan that spells out step by step activities to sustain the centre. The logical model below has

been developed to monitor the activities so as to achieve a desirable outcome.

Results Based Management

Results-Based Management (RBM) is a management strategy that focuses on performance and the

achievement of results (outputs, outcomes and impacts) (Yiadom, 2014). The aim of RBM is to manage

an intervention while trying to ensure its relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and other quality

criteria (ICRC, 2002). RBM provides a structured, logical model for identifying expected results and the

inputs and activities needed to accomplish them (Yiadom, 2014). The figures 1 and 2 show the logical

model of TRIC project. TRIC results chain comprises an input level, activities level, outcome level

(immediate, intermediate and ultimate).

Dissemination

Several activities are used to disseminate the outcomes of TRIC. TRIC‟S website is:

www.tric.gtuc.edu.gh. Publications and reports, career info shops, annual regional and national

technology fairs, TV documentary and presentations at both local and international conferences (ICETE,

ICSSE, eLearning Africa) are all available and showcase technology transfer products.

http://www.tric.gtuc.edu.gh/


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Fig 1: Logical Model of TRIC

Increased private sector productivity

Effectiveness of the operations of

Private Sector firms increased

Creation of an effective research and communication platform to support

private sector and TRIC Collaborations

New technologies transferred to the private sector

website with social media platform for

TRIC developed

Develop,host and maintain website with social media platform for TRIC

3 industry collaboration

workshops conducted

Conduct 3 industry collaboration

workshops

TRIC research projects and teams

selected

Select TRIC research projects

and teams

TRIC Projects, TRIC Staff, Industrial Partners

Training and familiarisation

workshop organized

Organise training and familiarisation

workshops

Annual technology fair organized

Organise an annual technology fair


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Increased private sector productivity

Improved policies and processes for transferring demand driven

technologies to the private sector

Enabling environment for effective transfer of demand driven

technologies to the private sector created

Strategic Plan printed and distributed

Engage GTUC staff to print and distribute the

strategic plan

Stakeholder workshops organised

Conduct 3 sub-regional workshop to

review the draft strategic plan

Consultants, select committee, GTUC Staff

GTUC senior Staff engaged to review

Strategic Plan

Engage GTUC senior staff to review the

draft strategic plan

Consultant engaged to develop Draft

Strategic Plan

Engage a consultant to draft a 3 year strategic

plan

TRIC R&D Strategic Plan developed

Fig. 2: Logical Model of TRIC


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Strategic Cross-Institutional Collaboration Collaborative learning has been gaining momentum as a promising pedagogy in higher education.

According to Chan and Mok (2015), in order to deepen cooperation between universities and industry,

institutional structures need to be redesigned for such objectives and more importantly the core values of

the university should also shift to adapt to these needs. Research on students‟ collaboration is increasing.

There are varying reasons by which universities collaborate with one another. Such reasons include,

providing developmental solutions, the ability to broaden curricula despite limited resources, or the

leverage to negotiate prices and terms from vendors. Collaborative projects may come about from

external sources or from an internal recognition that an aspect of the institution would benefit from

considering and/or changing, for example, converging students‟ services to increase efficiency while

enhancing the students‟ experience (Bulpitt, 2012). In Ghana, GTUC is one of the best universities that

have a higher level of cross institutional collaboration. By having a cross institutional collaboration, a

shared vision of universities involved are achieved. It is obvious that collaboration enables each of the

member institutions to do more together than could be accomplished, which is an essential component of

partnership (Duffield et al., 2013).

At GTUC the cross boundary collaboration with other institutions works in various ways. The

Technology Research and Innovation Centre (TRIC) at the Ghana Technology University College, is

collaborating in terms of research with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation

(MESTI) and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) in the

funding of innovative projects at the centre. Also, in terms of research, GTUC is collaborating with

Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa (TISCA)-Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada.

At an institutional, departmental, or faculty level, a common interest around specific courses,

administrative services, or other goals can drive the process of cooperating to pursue those goals.

GTUC has formed Faculty Industry Advisory Boards with the various industry partners (which include

the Telecoms, software system developers, and financial institutions) under the following groups: Faculty

of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of IT Business. These

advisory boards are involved in the curriculum development.

A significant portion of GTUC‟S technology transfer is implemented through partnerships with other

government agencies/departments, industry, academia, and other international collaborators through

mechanisms MoU Agreements or the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. GTUC is also

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016687610


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actively seeking partnerships, collaboration, and cooperative activities to develop technology with shared

purposes: to enable GTUC to meet its 'innovative and technology needs (for experimental and incubating

research) and to contribute to the nation‟s commercial competitiveness in global markets.

At an institutional level GTUC is collaborating with cross border institutions such as Coventry

University (U.K), Aalborg University (Denmark), MS Ramaiah University of Applied Science (India),

University of West Scotland and CASS European Institute of Management Studies. GTUC has developed

explicit structures with these institutions by formalizing faculty teaching and learning and administrative

operations to suit the culture of all parties. Furthermore, critical steering committees involve

representatives of the universities. Vividly, when it comes to funding, members agree to joint funding,

and may deploy technological platforms with a very high notch for the purpose of research, teaching,

learning and monitoring. The global strategic team of GTUC is to develop strategic relationships with our

overseas partner institutions, fostering new collegial associations and creating new international

opportunities for various groups within the university community.

The cross-institutional collaboration at GTUC has helped the university to reach a higher level of

accomplishment which might not have been possible if it were to operate as stand-alone. Through the

cross institutional collaboration, GTUC is gaining experts in terms of research who are able to draw joint

grants to the university as well as running academic conferences of high repute. Furthermore, GTUC

cross Institutional collaboration is known to have reduced duplication of effort among those working

jointly on a problem as well as providing multiple voices for troubleshooting and problem solving during

the implementation stages of projects. Through collaborations, GTUC has been able to build the capacity

of staff and faculty, to bring cutting edge to academic programmes, and implement new educational

models and educational technologies while exchanging ideas and experiences.

As particular technologies become commodity services, higher education will find greater impetus to

offer such services through partnerships. At the same time, collaborations focused on certain technologies

will help colleges and universities to develop those tools in ways that might not be well patronized by the

commercial marketplace. The landscape of academic sharing is likely to grow more complicated, forming

an overlapping mosaic as existing consortia with multi-campus institutions to create ever more complex

academic collaborations. GTUC is strategically positioned to harness the strength of cross institutional

collaborations to foster the training of human capital for socio-economic development.


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Innovative Projects at TRIC

The research centre provides concrete solutions to the problems that Ghana‟s small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs) currently encounter at the interface between promoting and hampering factors around

innovation in all the facets of their businesses. By conducting and assisting in applied research for the

economics domain, the research centre supports both students and faculties. When academia and industry

work in tandem to push the frontiers of knowledge, they have the potential to become a powerful engine

for innovation and economic growth. The pressure to increase equity and improve educational outcomes

for students is growing around the world (Vieluf et al., 2012). In line with the centre strategic direction,

TRIC in collaboration with the faculty members and industrial partners has developed nine market driven

products. The products are in the areas of ICT and engineering.

The following describe the projects developed under TRIC:

Design and Implement a location base System (LBS) for determining the status of ATMs in close

proximity

This project presents the design and implementation of a Location Base System (LBS) for determining

the status of ATMs in close proximity. The main aim of the system or application is to determine the

functional status of ATMs and then provide the user with a graphical directional path to the closest ATM.

This service technology application called the ATMFINDER is an open source application and a

combination of mobile and web applications that run on smart phones or devices that have internet

connectivity and an Assisted-Global Positioning System (A-GPS) receiver. The application uses Google

Web and a combination of Google places, GPS APIs on Android Phones and Global Positioning System

(GPS) coordinates of the current location of the smart/mobile device to find the location of ATM‟s closest

to it and Google maps for the direction and navigation.


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Fig. 3: Location base System (LBS) for determining the status of ATMs in close proximity Application

Interface (Source: Author Compilation, 2017)

Integrated Web- based Application Using SMS/GIS/GPS for location – Aware Disaster

Over the years, disasters have been a global concern and with the rapid rate of urbanization, damage

caused by these disasters has led to the loss of more lives and property. Rapid, real-time response is a key

requirement to save lives and property. In order to efficiently utilize available resources, locating areas

stricken with disaster must be quick and precise. This research paper discusses a development effort that

has resulted in a real-time, web-based system that deploys Geographic Information System (GIS) to

augment existing emergency response processes. The system utilizes the ubiquitous mobile smart phones,

Short Message Service (SMS), and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies to acquire coordinate

data of individuals caught in emergency situations. These coordinates serve as input for the GIS software,

which plots them in real-time. The research was developed on the Google Android™ operating system

platform using open source development tools and languages. The system provides a cost effective and an

efficient way of visualizing location-aware information for rapid response and rescue by various disaster

management agencies.


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Fig 4: Aware Disaster Application (Source: Author compilation, 2017)

Modification of Bitumen with waste plastic materials for road construction in Ghana

Efficient management of municipal solid waste (MSW), especially waste plastic components is a growing

challenge for many developing countries including Ghana. This project used commodity plastics; namely

high density polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP) with conventional AC-20 graded bitumen.

The plastics were chopped and blended with the bitumen „in-situ‟, with a shear mixer at a temperature

range of 160 ºC-170 ºC. Basic rheological parameters such as penetration, ring and ball softening point

and viscosity test were employed to determine the resulting changes from the base bitumen.

Intelligent panbolic Wi-Fi antenna

Wi-Fi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly (using radio

waves) over a computer network, including high-speed internet connections. Wi-Fi is simply a

trademarked term meaning IEEE 802.11x.The Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that owns the Wi-Fi

(registered trademark) term specifically defines Wi-Fi as any "wireless local area network (WLAN)

products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards.


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The directional antenna was primarily designed to practically detect and extend the signal range of the 2.4

GHz Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11g) for wireless local area network (WLAN).The target being the HOTSPOT

Access point on Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) campus which has limited range of 30m

and also stationary, meaning its position cannot be changed to suit the demands of individuals. Access

point (AP) is the wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver or base station that can connect one or

many wireless devices simultaneously to the internet, and Wi-Fi a generic term that refers to the IEEE

802.11 communications standard for Wireless Local Access Networks (WLANs). More importantly, the

simplicity of this design did not necessarily require special skills or sophisticated tools.

Students’ Records Management system using Smart Cards and Biometric Technology for Educational

Institutions

Storing of Biometric Data is increasingly becoming a household trend for verification and identification

processes in recent developments. Biometrics in simple terms is described as the science and technology

of measuring and analyzing biological data. The biological data often range from DNA, fingerprints, eye

retinas and irises, voice patterns and hand measurements. This project looks at enhancing existing

students‟ records management systems with a more reliable approach using smart cards and biometric

technology to improve upon identification and verification of students‟ credentials. The biometric data

used in this project are fingerprints and it was selected due to its long-term stability, ease of use and

average user acceptance. It is by far, the most commonly deployed biometric technology, used in a wide

range of physical access and logical access applications.

Fig. 5: Students‟ Records Management system Software Interface (Source: Author compilation, 2017)


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Integrated Road Accident Reporting System Using GSM/GPS Technology

The Integrated Road Accident Reporting System using GSM/GPS technology project is real-time mobile

based Road Accident Reporting System which has a Geographic Information System (GIS) enabled

configuration that can be used by road safety stake holding agencies to aid in the location of accident

scenes. This system includes a mobile based application the reporting medium and a cloud based

application that can be accessed through a web browser.

Fig 6: Integrated Road Accident Reporting System using GSM/GPS Technology software interface (Source: Author compilation,

2017)

Brain exercising game for children

The brain exercising game is computer software that exercises the human brain by challenging it to

improve cognitive abilities. The users of the software are basically children, who exercise their cognitive


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development in the areas of attention, memory and speed. The purpose of the game is to help children

sharpen their analytic skills, strengthen their visual and auditory memory, boost concentration and

increase problem solving abilities.

Fig. 7: Brain exercising game for children software interface (Source: Author compilation, 2017)

Technology Transfer In the academic sector, the process of commercialization or bringing technologies to the marketplace is

known as “technology transfer” (Heqiang, 2010). By and large, technology transfer is accomplished

through licensing intellectual property (IP) to companies that have the resources and desire to develop and

produce the technology for specific applications. In return, universities receive payments (in the form of

cash and/or equity and/or royalties on earned revenues) for the products or services that were licensed.

The income to the university is distributed according to the university‟s policy, but it includes


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compensation to inventors and a mechanism for channelling income back into the research programmes

of the university.

The challenges confronting most under-industrialized countries vary from country to country and have

social, political, economic and psychological dimensions. It is important to note that the issues of

industrialization and technology transfer constraints are relevant not only in under-developed countries

but also in industrially advanced countries as well (Asuako, 2015).

Technology transfer is an important issue for any country‟s industrialization. Efforts to realize this goal

must be encouraged and sustained despite the constraints or challenges. The successful implementation of

technology depends not only on technical issues, but also on the right social, political, and institutional

environment.

Ghana‟s industrialization process is largely “state-centric”; meaning the state is the central player in the

country‟s industrialization process. Over the years, bad political culture, weak social institutions, poor

leadership and bad governance have impacted negatively on this phenomenon. However, a lot of

potentials still remain in terms of human, material and natural resources that can help Ghana rise to the

level of the industrialized countries in Europe, North America and that of the newly industrialized

economies of South East Asia (Asuako, 2015).

In recent times, some institutions and governmental agencies in Ghana have established Technology

Transfer Offices (TTO) or centres dedicated to identifying appropriate research and development

strategies. Examples of such institutions are the Technology Transfer and Marketing Centre (TTMC) of

Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, the Centre for Research Development Technology and Innovation

(CRDTI) of Kumasi Technical University, Technology Development and Transfer Centre (TDTC) of

University of Ghana (UG), Technology Research and Innovation Centre (TRIC) of Ghana Technology

University College (GTUC), Technology Development and Transfer Centre (TDTC) of Council for

Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame

Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, the Development and Application

of Intermediate Technology (DAPIT) in the Greater Accra region, and the Ghana Regional Appropriate

Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) in Accra-Tema.

At its core, the TRIC technology transfer programme is focused on creating benefits for society by

transferring the centre‟s research outputs and innovative knowledge to outside organizations and industry.

This focus is consistent with GTUC‟S directive to pursue technology-focused mission, both in academic


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and research arenas, and its vision of disseminating and impacting 'learners everywhere'. GTUC, through

TRIC, is at the forefront of the nation‟s initiatives to develop breakthrough technologies and applications

to support the development of a strong, innovative, and competitive commercial technology sector and to

support a robust economic base through MESTI. Therefore, an effective way to transfer technology and

support the development of Ghana's commercial activities through partnership activities is a core

component of TRIC‟S programme to develop innovative and applied technologies.

A case in point is TRIC‟S technology which is aiding industry in more productive and society in cost-

effective manner, introduced by a solar-energy component assembly and maintenance programme. This

solar-energy project is paving the way for cleaner and greener technologies in solar energy installations.

A pilot test using microwave, regular light-bulb, television, and a fan has proven the project to be

successful alternative source of energy.

GTUC/TRIC uses both informal and formal activities as part of its technology transfer and partnership

efforts. Informal activities embrace those that contribute to the transfer of knowledge, cooperative

research partnerships, use of facilities and equipment as test beds for non-restricted (sharable) projects,

and publishing of scientific data with practical application. The more formal aspects of GTUC‟S/TRIC

technology transfer activities include the strategic and coordinated process of identifying innovations and

designing methods of providing for their application outside of GTUC'S/TRIC internal IP-protected use.

In defining its research agenda henceforth, GTUC/TRIC is focusing on the informal technology transfer

methods, which will allow the university to excel in this area. Thus, the informal efforts described above

are designed to be robust, with several active collaborative relationships for research and development in

the next five years of strategic planning. The formal processes, however, will require the assessment of

the fiscal and personnel resources available for supporting the technology transfer and commercialization

process and provide sufficient resources to meet requirements as well as making sure GTUC/TRIC

personnel are fully aware of their responsibility to report inventions and plan for technology transfer.

GTUC/TRIC has the infrastructure for the technology transfer process, but needs to ensure that it is

operating at its full capacity.

Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) recognizes the need for this increased emphasis on formal

technology transfer approaches. While we are confident that our informal technology transfer activities

will continue to flourish, we believe that formal technology transfer activities are an appropriate focus for

a university such as GTUC with a core research and development mission. To achieve this goal, GTUC is

undertaking a major effort to increase the visibility and importance of this vital function within the


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university, through a communication platform which is a part of TRIC'S goal and measured outcomes. It

is for this reason that GTUC has found it expedient to add technology transfer to the top-level, university-

wide performance goals reported annually to the University Council. For FY2014-15, one of the TRIC'S

goals is a set of key technology transfer metrics. This performance goal emphasizes that, as a university,

GTUC is committed to the transfer of TRIC technologies, and not exclusively focused on the graduation

of first-class technology-savvy students and expansion at the postgraduate education level.

Conclusion Since its establishment, TRIC has spurred profound dynamics in GTUC'S research culture. TRIC was

established as a crucible for melding idea, to encapsulate research activities within various faculties of the

institution, and engaging collaborators/partners in competitive funded research with commercialization

and technology transfer as its mission.

The nation‟s current economic competitiveness can be boosted from significant increase in human capital

development through education, with transliteration into applied research and investment in technology

and innovation. With a new focus on technology education, GTUC is committed to advanced level

research, which is driven by partnerships or collaborations that lead to the development of products for

transfer into industry.

GTUC/TRIC will make it a top priority to transfer institution-developed technologies, processes,

discoveries, and knowledge to the commercial sector through various means, including licenses,

partnerships, broad dissemination of results, and cooperative activities. These transferred technologies

will be used to create products, services, cascading innovations, and other discoveries to fuel the nation‟s

economic engine and improve quality of life.

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THE FATE OF GHANAIAN SME STARTUPS

Forgoh Eric Chick

Coventry University, Uk

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

When a business idea coincides with a market need, the rationale for a startup is born. Whether or not these

business ideas eventually become viable economic products and/or services is a cause for concern especially for

developing economies. This is even more so for Ghana because according to the Ghana statistical service, the ratio

of SME startups that eventually become full-fledged entities and complete their business cycles is 1:2. Consensus in

contemporary Ghanaian business circles attributes this failure to lack of funding. Several initiatives like the Export

Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) have been put in

place by the government and the business community to bridge this funding gap. However, these initiatives have not

been able to significantly address the problem. In this article, forty Ghanaian SMEs were used to investigate a wider

array of impediments to the success of SME Startups. We found that key causes that contribute to SME startups

failures include: the Ghanaian culture or ecosystem towards startups or the lack of it, information asymmetry, the

market need, competition, lack of funding and expertise. Based on our findings, we suggested a number of

recommendations that if put in place appropriately would significantly increase the success rate of SME startups.

Keywords: SME Startups, Business Cycle, Funding gap, Ecosystem/Culture, Market need

Introduction

he impact of SME startups in a developing economy like Ghana‟s cannot be underestimated.

According to the Ghana News Agency (2006), an estimated seventy-five percent of Ghanaians earn

their living from the SME sector. The statistics from the Registrar General‟s office are staggering. Allotey

(2008) reported that ninety percent of businesses registered with this office are SMEs with a

corresponding eighty percent of the nation‟s employment. According to the Ghana statistical service, the

ratio of SME startups that eventually become full-fledged entities and complete their business cycle is

1:2. Many Ghanaians dream and talk about owning a business, but only few have been able to actualize

this dream. The audacity and risk taken by these entrepreneurs to venture into the unknown - uncharted

business environment with yet to be tested products must be cushioned with good policies and a

conducive environment. The questions we are faced with are; what are the reasons for the high failure rate

and what are the factors that shape the process of successful entrepreneurship in the Ghanaian economy?

According to Zoltan et al (2009), the promotion of entrepreneurship, innovation, the timely, effective and

efficient absorption of nascent technologies are fervent determinants of the prosperity of such economies.

T


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This explains why the net result from adding SME startup births and deaths which indicates their turnover

rate is a critical success factor of business dynamism and an essential tool for employment statistics. The

support of the government and the business community for SME startups and business creation is justified

by their direct impact on job creation and by extension, economic growth. In an attempt to resolve these

problems, the government has put in place several initiatives; however these interventions have not been

able to adequately resolve these problems. This is because the government has attempted to solve the

problem just from a financial perspective, without much attention to policies, ecosystem/culture, market

needs and the funding gap. On the other hand there are several SME startups thriving in this economy.

They must have navigated the murky waters of SME startups in an atypical fashion, by doing things

differently in terms of process and/or product dictates. In order to investigate the reasons why these

government interventions have not been adequately successful, we approach the problem from a more

comprehensive point of view taking into consideration the funding gap, market needs, the

ecosystem/culture and policy framework. In the ensuing paragraphs and chapters we explain the key

words in the Ghanaian context, explain the methodology used in the study, and present our results and

findings. In the last section of this paper, we discuss our findings and make recommendations that if

implemented are likely to improve the success rate of SME Startups in Ghana.

SME Startups

In an attempt to define a startup, several concepts with diverse components must be integrated. The

definitions of startups are as numerous as they are divergent. However, there are some conceptual

definitions within academia and contemporary business circles. Ries, (2011) defines a startup as a human

institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Rawat

and Kanoria (2015) define startups as business institutions that are engaged in the development,

production and distribution of new products, processes or services. Bureaucratic hierarchies and target

meeting exigencies reduce the probability of coming up with innovations in large organizations. This

explains why most startups are relatively small establishments in terms of size and funds. The afore

mentioned definitions place no emphasis on the size of the firm but do take cognizance of the

bureaucratic connotation offered by the word „institution‟. The most widely used criterion in defining an

SME startup in Ghanaian business circles is the number of employees (Kayanula and Quartey, 2000). The

reason for the neglect of an „economic‟ aspect in the definitions is unclear but a likely explanation is the

consistent exchange rate differentials between the Ghanaian currency and other international currencies.

Because of this arbitrariness involved in the Ghanaian context, we define an SME startup as any

institution that has an innovative product, has been in existence for less than five years and has a

maximum of thirty employees.


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For startups to be successful, an institution (with a culture, HR potential and coordination competencies)

must be created. Another very critical aspect is the new product/service. Whatever experience is derived

by customers from interacting with the startup is a huge part of its product. Essential to the product frame

is its novelty and innovation but innovations can be in many forms: serendipities, tweaking an existing

technology, inventing a business model to uncover hidden value or market development (taking an

existing product to a new business location). Startups are epitomized by risk and uncertainty, the more

reason replicating or cloning a business model in the same business environment won‟t make for one. The

explanation for this is that the success of the new setup will be based only on how well the replicated or

cloned processes are executed – while the unpredictability factor is undermined.

Business Cycle

If we are truly humbled by the fact that 80% of Ghanaian firms (Ghana Statistical Service, 2009) are

SMEs which more often than not are derivatives of startups then, the processes leading to their birth,

existence and sustainability must be prescribed a rigorous methodology to guide their effectiveness and

increase the possibility and probability of their success. The cycle required to turn these brilliant product

insights to successful firms must be made auspicious by the government and the business community.

Most writers on entrepreneurship have the cycle for startups split into three stages: the pre-startup, the

startup and the growth stages.

In the pre-startup stage, the discovery is at its budding stage and the entrepreneur contemplates its

scalability and feasibility. This stage is characterized by high risk and uncertainty, low investment that

could come from angel investors and individual effort. Mostly personal funds are used; service/product

buy-in and assistance come from friends and family.

The startup stage has the product explicitly defined with the development of a prototype, management

team and imminent entry into the market. Investments are average and support mechanisms are

sought.This is the most risky and uncertain stage for startups because the concept is turned to a

marketable product/service here. Getting the right support mechanism is primordial for transition and

growth. Most researchers on this subject believe that actual entrepreneurship ends at the startup stage

(Salamzadeh and Kesim, 2015).

In the growth stage, there is potential for high investments which are likely to be corporate at this stage

with better organizational patterns. Employees are hired to meet the product demand from customers and

sustainability measures are expedient.


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Funding Gap

Most businesses are basically financed by equity and/or debt. Whilst formal equity finance tends to fund

lower-risk, later stages of investments, startups are disadvantaged because they face greater information

asymmetries in the credit markets due to the absence of a credit history. As a consequence,

entrepreneurship funding often relies on the famous 3Fs: Founder, Family and Friends. One of the core

differences between SME startups and other business organizations in the Ghanaian economy is that the

former have conspicuous difficulties in accessing the national and international credit markets, hence the

funding gap. There is so much existing literature on the constraints faced by SMEs in their quest to access

credit and across the board researchers are in consonance that their inability to pledge satisfactory

collateral is a common denominator. Ackah and Vuvor (2011) posited that the stringent conditions

attached to banking methodologies are the rationale behind the more than 50% rejection of loan

applications from SME startups. Even if the application is not rejected, the firm is likely to receive far less

than the requested amount due to the risk and uncertainty involved, at least from the banks‟ perspective.

Startups have therefore resorted to other forms of finance like business angels who are private

businessmen with the capability of investing in such ventures. They can be contracted through dealmakers

like legal counsels and accountants but because there is no established market place for their functions,

they are considered informal. Venture capitalists are also a source of capital and advice to startups. They

can choose to be limited partners, otherwise they can claim a percentage of the business returns without

active involvement in the management of the business. The high level of risk associated with their

investments compels them to demand higher returns.

Market Need

Most SME startups that adopt innovation as their strategy usually begin with a minimal output scale. The

reason for this is because their motivation is usually the market acceptability or suitability of the novel

product they pose. In a pragmatic business setup, lawyers want more cases, not an efficient office. Hence,

confronting and solving an interesting societal problem instead of that which solves a market need is one

of the reasons for startup failures. CBinsights.com (2012) postulated that startups are likely to fail if their

product does not have a market need. The innovation, technology could be breathtaking but once it is not

a scalable solution to a large enough problem, it becomes an on the shelf item. Customer buy-in must be

at the forefront of any disruptive technology and the business model must be capable of solving a

recognized problem in a scalable manner.


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Ecosystem/Culture

Prodigies are found in the oddest of places but what can be done to harness their energy, ideologies, and

innovations to prevent a society „of all start and half finish‟? The Ghanaian ecosystem/culture is difficult

to define. Nevertheless, a paradigm shift from the traditional values of specific interventions with adhoc

measures must be reconsidered. Emphasis should be placed on creating synergies between various

stakeholders (firms, financiers), institutions like universities and public sector agencies and fostering

processes. This will result in the transformation of SME startups to high growth firms and the increase in

birth rates of startups and other businesses. The Isenberg Model can be used to paint clearer picture of the

way forward for the Ghanaian entrepreneurial system. See figure 1 below.

Fig. 1: The Isenberg Model: Entrepreneurship determinants; Culture and Capabilities

Source: Eurostat (2012)

The model articulates an entrepreneurship culture that is strategic for economic prosperity. The approach

is best regarded as a precondition that can instigate the successful implementation of a cocktail of

strategies, knowledge management and policies on national competition within the system of

entrepreneurship. Six determinants that have several sub elements interacting within them were identified.

These are:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ACCESS TO FINANCE

R&D & TECHNOLOGY

CULTURE/ECOSYSTEM

HUMAN CAPITAL

MARKET CONDITIONS

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

(POLICIES)


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Human Capital – The entrepreneurial sector is likely to be successful if academic curricula are tailored

towards innovation, business ownership and if training workshops are organized to improve both the

skilled and unskilled workforce.

Technology and R&D (Research and Development) – The impact of R&D is out of the classroom hence,

the necessity for: an interface between the industry and learning centers, technological cooperation

between firms, access to broadband and a standard system for patents.

Market Conditions – Effective antitrust laws to promote healthy competition, creating value networks

and distribution channels both at home and abroad for entrepreneurs will improve the success rate of

entrepreneurship.

Access to Finance – A vibrant micro finance sector is primordial since most SMEs are financed from

here. Making provision for loans to SMEs at the pre-startup stage with reasonable prime and lending rates

is a necessary ingredient in the entrepreneurship dish.

Regulatory Framework – A framework that takes away administrative bottlenecks on business

registration and growth, provides environmental, health, product and safety regulations alongside tax

incentives for SMEs could really increase their success rate.

Culture – A culture that puts the spotlight on the success stories of entrepreneurs, tolerates risks,

accommodates mistakes and failures should be encouraged. The consumption of homemade goods like

Kantanka cars and the use of mostly home grown foodstuff in the school feeding program (in the case of

Ghana) should go a long way to spur SMEs. Establishing and commemorating an „entrepreneurship day‟

with fairs and contests on entrepreneurship will likely add value to the sector.

The impact of SME startups on income stability, employment, and economic growth has instigated

several government interventions. One of the pioneer agencies created to assist entrepreneurs was the

Credit Guarantee Scheme in 1969. It was closely followed by the Ghana Business Promotion later on

changed to Ghana Enterprise Development Commission. The NBSSI (National Board for Small Scale

Industries) was established with a revolving loan scheme to subsidize for working capital and acquisition

of tangible assets. Then came the Ghana Government Small Business Loan scheme, which was

established to help SMEs with capital and working capital requirements. GRATIS was instituted to assist

SMEs, increase job opportunities and foster development. Business Advisory centers were also created to

assist entrepreneurs with managerial, commercial, technical and financial capabilities. The Ministry of

Private Sector Development was created to harmonize the sector, foster growth and reduce poverty. The

business development unit within the ministry facilitated SME support services and helped SMEs to

access credit. Several documents have also been published on the policy framework. These include:

Investment Code (1985), Draft policy paper on SME development (2002), Strategies and Action Plan


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(2002-2004), Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2002-2004), the National Medium Term

Development Strategy (2004-2008) articulating the position of the government in facilitating private

sector development together with initiatives like Vision 2002 geared towards improving the SME sector

(Ackah and Vuvor, 2011).

These laudable initiatives intended to cushion the fall of these entities have not been able to significantly

address the problem. The statusquo of SME startups means some fundamental deterrents must be

rectified. Of all the factors that could derail SME startups, there is so much available literature on

financing SMEs – a confirmation of the belief within contemporary Ghanaian business circles that just

financing these entities is the solution to their net turnover rate. This imbalance in attempting to solve the

problem has led to an unequal investment in non-financial factors. Most SME startups still find it difficult

to change a business phase or increase their likelihood of becoming high growth firms.

Methodology

In order to accomplish the objective of the study which is to determine why most startups fail to become

successful business entities and end up leaving the market, we used survey methodology. To this effect,

we prepared a questionnaire that covers the objectives of the research and used it to obtain primary data

from SME startups. We also used secondary data compiled by the Registrar General‟s office and the

Ghana Statistical Service to complement our primary data. We considered the use of questionnaire to be

the best option to get stakeholders who could give experiential insights actively involved. The population

of our study is the totality of SME Startups in Ghana. According to Trading Economics (2014), the total

number of registered businesses in the Ghanaian economy was reported at 100,272 in 2003 by a World

Bank collection survey. The close to 90% of these businesses that represent SMEs (Allotey, 2008), is an

awfully huge figure to be used as the main focus of our query. Hence, we came up with a study

population based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria.

To qualify for inclusion in our sample, SMEs must be registered with the Ministry of Business

Development. VAT (Value Added Tax) paying firms, between 0 – 5 years old, found in the Dansoman

neighborhood in the Accra metropolis, have a maximum of thirty employees, have a new business model,

tweaked an existing technology or carried out market development with its product/service. SMEs not

registered with the Ministry of Business Development were excluded because of their illegitimacy. Those

that were more than 5 years old were excluded because we thought they were already grounded and unfit

to be called Startups. SME Startups outside the study area were excluded because they were not easily

accessible. Finally, we arrived at forty SME Startups.


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3 2

18

2 30

49.375

6.25

56.25

6.259.375

0

12.59.375

15.625

71.87578.125

87.5 87.5

100

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

RETAIL MANUFAC. SERVICES EDUCATION HEALTH FARMING OTHERS

FREQ.

PER. %

CUM.

To proceed with our study, we administered structured questionnaires that adopted both open and closed

ended questions to the sample SMEs. Thirty-two out of the forty Startups met the timeframe set to

respond to our questions. This was considered a statistically representative since sample size, n > 30,

(“The rational behind,” 2013). The research design for the study was quantitative and so we used

descriptive statistics to analyze our data. Responses obtained were entered into excel and the Statistical

package for Social Sciences (SPSS) spreadsheets wherefrom we produced tables and descriptive

statistical measures of our findings.

Results and Findings Here, we present an analysis of the responses obtained from the questionnaire model discussed in the

methodology above. Pertinent variables to be analyzed include: the sources and amount of capital for

startups, awareness of various government interventions by startups, factors that affect the lives of

Startups (information asymmetry, length of time taken to register businesses, the Ghanaian culture

towards entrepreneurship and the market need).

Fig. 2: Frequency distribution of the business sectors of SME startups

The sample was dominated by Startups that provide services with none captured in the farming sector.

This is probably because the study area was the business zone of Accra that does not support much

farming activity.


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Table 1: Legal Status of SME Startups

The responses show that about 41% of startups were private partnerships, 28% private limited liabilities

and 31% sole proprietorships.

Fig. 3: Management Qualification

The study also showed that 47% of the management teams of startups had a first degree, about 20% with

a Master‟s degree and other higher professional certificates. HND (Higher National Diploma) and SHS

(Senior High School) certificates represented 25% and 9% respectively.

Minimum Management Qualification

SHS

HND

1st Degree

Master's degree

Others

LEGAL STATUS FREQ. PER. % CUM. %

Sole Proprietorship

10 31.25% 31.25

Private Limited

Liability

9 28.125% 59.375

Private Partnership

13 40.625% 100


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Table 2: Level and sources of capital for start-ups

Level of Capital

Source of fund

A

GH¢ 10,000 -

GH¢ 50,000

B

GH¢50,000 –

GH¢ 100,000

C

GH¢ 100,000 -

GH¢ 150,000

D

≥ GH¢ 150,000

Founder, Family & Friends 10 06 06 05

Angel Investors 01 01 02

Micro Finance Institutions 02 02 03 03

Banks 01 02 02

Others 01

From the table, most startups are funded by the 3Fs, although a good number also used a hybrid source of

funding. Very few access funds from Angel Investors and Banks. An encouraging number of startups are

funded by Micro Finance Institutions. It is also evident that the „A‟ level of capital is solicited with B, C,

& D having an almost even solicitation.

Table 3: Awareness of Government Interventions by Startups

Factor Unaware Aware

No of firms 20 12

Percentage 62.5% 37.5%

Beneficiaries of Schemes 02

% of beneficiaries relative to sample 6.25%

% of beneficiaries relative to those aware 16.7%

62.5% of startups were unaware of any Government interventions for SME startups. Of the 32 Startups

that made up the representative sample, 2 (6.25%) were beneficiaries of any Government Initiatives and

16.7% has benefitted from the startups that were aware of the schemes.


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Table 4: Factors affecting the lives SME Startups

Factor

Access to

finance

Regulatory

Framework

Market

Conditions

R& D and

Technology

Culture or

Ecosystem

Human

Capital

No of Firms 14 9 4 2 2 1

Percentage 44% 28% 12.5% 6.25% 6.25% 3%

Fig. 4: Challenges of SME Start ups

Access to finance was considered the greatest challenge of SME startups by respondents – 44%, 28% of

respondents considered the policy framework to be the major challenge, 12.5% thought the market

conditions was their major hurdle, 6.25% gave the ecosystem, R& D and technology, whilst 3% thought

the their greatest challenge was the human capital.

Table 5: Startup Ingredients

Business plan Mentorship or

Guidance

IT resources Tax Incentives Intellectual

Property

No of Firms 18 00 14 4 4

Percentage 56% 0.0 % 44% 12.5% 12.5%

Out of the 32 startups sampled, 56% had a business plan, 44% had IT resources that could source

customers online, 12.5% enjoyed some tax incentives, 12.5% had intellectual property and no firm was

being mentored by any government scheme.

0 10 20 30 40 50

HUMAN CAPITAL

CULTURE/ECOSYSTEM

R&D AND TECHNOLOGY

MARKET CONDITIONS

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

ACCESS TO FINANCE

Challenges of SME Startups


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Conclusions

It is veritably ironic that whilst the nations with developing economies are those that are in dire need of

entrepreneurial reforms, it is these nations that tend to disrupt the process with several bottlenecks and

hurdles.

Information asymmetry is an important variable that affects Startups. There are several incentives that

most SMEs could not access either because of a complete lack of information or the dichotomy of the

information. But how can this be remotely plausible in an era when the „death of distance‟ and the

microprocessor revolution have been assured? The former has instigated the speed of information at low

cost via the use of internet and cell phones whilst the latter has increased the feasibility of almost

everybody being a part of global communications. The results of our findings indicate that there is an

obvious imbalance in the allocation of resources aimed at reducing the failure rate of SME startups.

Greater attention has been given to financial factors than the non-financial factors related to SME

startups. Evidence of this is the creation of many loans schemes and agencies for SMEs such as the

MASLOC (Microfinance and Small Loans Center), GGSBLS (Ghana Government Small Business Loan

Scheme). But more than 60% of tax-paying startups were not even aware of these schemes. Of the 40% of

the startups that were aware of Government interventions, only 17% were able to benefit from it.

Therefore, only 6.8% of SME startups in Ghana benefit from these schemes. This explains the

information asymmetry problem faced by SME startups in Ghana. In other words, this implies that access

to information about the schemes and access to the schemes are difficult. To this effect, we suggest the

following:

Upon completion of registration formalities, each SME startup should be handed a prepared package, with

soft copies sent to their websites on government policies on SME startups, mentorship schemes, tax

incentives, going concern (sustainability) advices, where, when and how to access these loan schemes etc.

The agencies in-charge of these schemes must present a level playing field for all SMEs and startups and

completely eradicate the problem of awareness.

A database of all registered SMEs and startups should be created. Through this database, every bit of

information that concerns the livelihood of these organizations like policy changes, business opportunities

and other relevant information can be sent to them in good time and at virtually no cost. The length of

time taken to register startups is a serious cause for concern. More than 70% of respondents took between

4 – 6 months to complete registration formalities for their businesses. This confirms the World Bank

Doing Business Report (2006) which postulated that there are up to 16 procedures involved in acquiring a


~ 135 ~


business license and averagely, it takes 127 days to deal with licensing dictates for business to commence

in Ghana. These are unnecessary hurdles and costs that increase the burden on startups.

Value engineering can be done on the registration procedures to take out procedures that add no value to

the process. The success story of value engineering and hence simplification of regulations is exemplified

by Mexico where it is possible to complete registration online and start a business in 3days. This could

serve as a point of reference to Ghanaian policy makers. France has instituted a self employment scheme

(auto entrepreneur) and the Pôles de compétivité – easily accessible schemes that maintain the vibrancy

and continuous growth of the SME sector.

The Ghanaian ecosystem towards SMEs is difficult to define, this explains why most respondents were

indifferent as to the effect it could have on their businesses. In the words of Agbenyo (2015), it is a

society endemic towards the phenomenon of imitation because any innovation that makes a breakthrough

on the market is imitated by most entrepreneurs until the market is saturated with the product. A dynamic

entrepreneurial ecosystem can be developed from a solid policy framework that encompasses both

promotion ideals and framework conditions.

Entrepreneurship awareness could be raised by observing a Ghana entrepreneurship day, profiling role-

models with success stories in the field, advertising campaigns and entrepreneurship fairs.

Entrepreneurship promotion can also be achieved through education and training programs that impart

skills via experiential and interactive teaching techniques such as competition on business plans and

virtual SME startups by students. Value network initiatives to promote capabilities and competences of

entrepreneurs via knowledge spillovers. New entrepreneurs could be assisted to establish through

coaching and mentoring schemes especially those witnessing high growth in their firms, using business

incubators and business accelerators.

The market need of customers can be identified via appropriate market analyses which embody: customer

analysis (characteristics of customers), market research (customer size, competition, potential and unmet

needs), targeting and marketing mix strategies (pricing and product). Startups are likely to stagger or even

stumble when they ignore (consciously or unconsciously) the wants and needs of clients since an essential

part of the downstream supply chain management is the market need of customers. Ultimate customers

are achieved by understanding a target audience and getting their attention – this is primordial for startup

success.


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THE BUILDING OCCUPANTS’ FACTOR IN REDUCING ELECTRIC

ENERGY WASTAGE IN GHANAIAN RESIDENTIAL HOMES- A

CRITICAL REVIEW

Mosner-Ansong K.F

1 and Duah, D

2

1,2Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology


Abstract

Globally, buildings that are certified by sustainable assessment methods like Leadership in Energy and

Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method

(BREEAM), must offer users minimum performance standards. One of the major expectations of these methods for

buildings is to perform efficiently in energy consumption. That notwithstanding, only 30% of such buildings

performed better than as expected whereas, about 25% of them do not meet their designed energy performance.

Interestingly, most of these certified buildings also have energy consumption problems. This has been argued by

many researchers as a probable result of the “missing link”, which is the “building occupants‟ factor” whose

actions indoors are very stochastic in nature. Understanding the building occupant factor in the Ghanaian context,

is therefore very critical in ensuring energy efficiency in residential homes. The aim of this study was to explore the

building occupant factor as an energy efficient key driver in reducing residential energy wastage. Being

predominantly literature based, the research explored and presented theoretical models and concepts of human and

occupant behavior including behavior change. Findings from the study proposed an integrated concept named the

Theory of Assured Maintenance Behavior (TAMB) that could be adopted in Ghana for fostering energy related

behavioral changes in households. The study also identified integrated electric energy related behavioral patterns

which could be target elements for TAMB in addressing energy wastage issues. The study concludes that the

building occupant factor is critical in electric energy wastage and that technology also has major supporting roles

in ensuring energy efficient building occupants‟ behavior in Ghanaian residential homes.

Keywords: Human Factor, Energy Efficiency, Electric Energy Wastage, Residential Homes

Introduction

nergy efficiency assurance and climate change with global warming are key concerns throughout the

world as the building sector constitutes the major consumer of energy and producer of carbon

dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide (Masoso and Grobler, 2010). Buildings consume approximately 40%

of the total energy produced globally, and considering the increasing rate of building developments, if

nothing is done to reduce energy wastage in households, the demand for energy by buildings will exceed

the available energy supply(Hong et al., 2015). For instance, in 2013 in the USA, the building sector

consumed 41% of the energy produced in the country, of which 22% was in the residential sector,

whereas 19% was in the commercial sector (EIA, 2013). A similar consumption of 41% was also used in

E

mailto:[email protected]


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Europe, of which 27% came from the residential sector with 14% from the commercial sector(Hong et al.,

2015). Similar national energy usage percentages were seen with China using 28%(Lam et al., 2006), UK

also using 39% (Perez-Lombard et al., 2008), and Brazil consuming 42% (Delbin and Gomes da Silva,

2005) and 47% in Switzerland (Zimmermann et al., 2005). The incredible resultant effects of such levels

of electric energy consumption are; i) crisis in the energy sector, ii) natural resources exhaustion and iii)

global warming. These have therefore compelled many countries, especially the developed ones to reduce

the building-sector energy consumption through continuously updated energy policies and usage of

improved energy efficiency technologies and actions(Hong et al., 2015).This trend is evident to show that

buildings, especially the residential sector, consumes significant amount of energy produced and hence

the need for sustainable but low cost measures to reduce energy consumption (Masoso & Grobler, 2010).

This is very particular in developing countries, where the economies may not support the extensive use of

technology. Clearly, dependency on technology alone cannot safeguard effective energy usage reduction

and therefore requires a dual partnership between technology and humans (Hong et al., 2015).According

to Turner and Frankel (2008), as the technological advancement gets more complicated, the human factor

must also achieve a higher level of control and importance which cannot be overlooked if the system must

guarantee substantial energy usage reduction in the building sector. Globally it is estimated that an energy

consumption range from 20% to 50% of the entire building energy use is attributable to the occupants‟

behavior (The PC Energy Report, 2009). With a positive input from the occupant, that ultimately should

result in significant reduction in energy consumption in buildings (Hong and Lin, 2012).

Relevance of the “Building Occupant Factor”

A lot has been done on performance prediction improvements, through Building Energy Simulations

(BES). However, results from such systems have not been very accurate and dependable due to other

factors beyond the control of simulations, significant of them is the “occupant factor” (Gaetani et al.,

2015). ASHRAE (2007) also adds that the actual buildings‟ energy usage is not determined by the

projected building performance and the standard building performance alone but the occupancy and

operation of the building, which are key factors of concern. It is therefore not surprising that,progressively

a lot of research have been conducted on the behavioral patterns of occupants in buildings (Gaetani et al.,

2015). Zhang et al., (2014) and Attia et al., (2013) indicated that the human (occupant) factor plays a

major role in the expected building energy performance calculations.

This study therefore attempted to explore into the various theories and models underlying human/

occupant behavior change. This was intended to develop a robust behaviour changeframework that could

offer significant reductions in end use electric energy wastage in residential sector. Considering the


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generally low income levels in Ghana, significant percentage of building occupants may not be able to

easily adopt the up-to-date technological systems for energy efficiency which usually come with

relatively high cost and hence adopting a behavior change could be comparatively economical.

Residential Sector Energy Situation in Ghana

According to the Energy Commission (2012), about 32% of Ghana‟s total electric energy for the economy

is consumed by the residential sector. Notwithstanding this high consumption rate, the sector also incurs

approximately 30% end-use wastage of electricity. Additionally, there is the problem of housing deficit in

Ghana, coupled with the high rate of urbanization which could further worsen the energy deficit situation.

Currently, the country requires 170,000 housing units to be provided annually in order to solve the

housing deficit problem in the country (Afrane et al., 2014). By inference, the provision of these housing

units could eventually increase the demand for electric energy in the country which further deepensthe

existing electric energy supply deficits. Energy usage in residential homes is not just by virtue of the

buildings themselves but the electric energy based technologies, systems and services that have been

installed in them (Sardianou, 2007 and Cayla et al., 2011). Ensuring responsible electric energy related

behavioral patterns in residential homes is therefore critical to the success of reducing end use wastage in

Ghana.

Theories of Human/Occupant Behavior

This section focused on the review of extensive literature to gain an understanding of the existing theories

and frameworks underpinning human/ occupant behavioral change. They include the following;

Behaviorism

McLeod (2016) maintained that, behaviorism as an approach mainly conducts inquiries on human actions

and engagements through scientific and objective methods, and hence an entirely unbiased investigational

division of natural science. He further indicated that, the theory therefore does not place scientific value

on introspection irrespective of the value placed on them. According to Watson (1913), the original

concept of behavioral theory was „methodological behaviorism‟ and subsequently other concepts of

behaviorism were developed based on that of Watson. The theory emphasized the role of the environment

as a stimulus on human behaviour and that observable actions were relevant for analysis rather than

human internal emotions.

Theory of Reasoned Action

Lynne (1995) emphasized that TRA is among the key forms of concepts in predicting human

behavior that offered a higher reliability and dependability in terms of the results


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expectancy.TRA therefore considered behavior as the end product of intentions where they

indicated that the unification of attitudes with regards to the individual‟s behavior produces

intention. Hence, Fishbein, maintained that, the form of intentions of the individual is the major

determinant for the final behavior (Ajzen, 1985). Considering the major role of intentions in

determining the ultimate actions of humans, (Fishbein & Manfredo, 1992) stressed that any

efforts targeted at fostering changes in the behavior of human must focus on the fundamental

elements that contribute in forming the intent. They further emphasized that, targeting

influencing factors of intent, was among the most effective ways of achieving behavioral

changes in humans.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

This theory has been used over the years to conceptualize and define human behavior. Ajzen (1991)

indicated that the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) gave birth to TPB.

The studies of Fishbein considered behavior as being a result of attitudes through psychological

procedures. He further investigated the causes for the inability of humans‟ attitudes from transforming

into expected behaviors. TRA considered behavior as the end product of intention where they indicated

that the combination of attitudes with regards to behavior produces intention. The TRA therefore inspired

the development of TPB. According to Ajzen, the following are the three key drivers of TPB; i) The

attitude of the individual towards behavior; ii) The subjective norms of the social context; and iii)

Perceived behavioral control.

Thus, the degree of individual‟s control on the intended behavior is a key ingredient to drive people to

behave in a certain way. The individual‟s feelings, either positive or negative, has a major impact on their

behavior. Secondly, the individual‟s expectation from the social environment they find themselves in,

could determine their behaviors (Ajzen, 1991). Thirdly, when the individual believes that his resources

are enough to perform a behavior, their level of confidence increases which makes it easy for them to

execute that particular behavior (Lee &Kozar, 2005).Stern (2000) and Staats (2003)further maintained

that, the TPB model had been applied in the studying into pro-environmental conduct of humans in the

areas of water preservation, recycling, energy usage, travel type preference, food preference as well as

ethical investment.


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The Health Belief Model

This theory being a perceptive model argued that the behavior of individuals is strongly influenced by the

beliefs of the people with regards to the anticipated dangers and fears of that conduct on their personal

health and quality of life (Sharma and Romas, 2012). Furthermore, they maintained that the execution of

a behavior depended on the following two cues to action; i) the internal state of the individuals and ii) the

external parameters which comprise of the available information and promotions on the media platform.

Hence, the dangers and risks the individuals anticipate to encounter on the execution of an action is

significantly correlated to their willingness to embark on such a conduct. This brings into place the

concept of self-efficacy as proposed by (Bandura 1982) which emphasized the capacity of the individual

to execute a particular conduct. In that regards, the individual in question would assess whether by

performing a particular behavior, such a conduct would minimize the probability of danger they would

have been subjected to if they had done otherwise. Nisbet and Gick (2008) therefore upheld that when

people have a high sense of vulnerability to danger personally, andthey believe the only probable way to

avoid such a risk is to change their behavior, there would be a high tendency for behavioral change.

The Social Practice Theory (SPT)

In recent times SPT has been used in assessing the behavior of humans especially in the areas of

consumption as well as usage of energy (Reckwitz 2002). In illuminating on SPT, he further argued that,

the human system is a combination of elements that when put together can better determine how humans

behave. According to the proponents, credence is given to the fact that the behavior of humans involves

the combinations of inter dependent variables including the perceptual and actual events, norms,

meanings, use of technology, knowledge. This theory therefore maintained that, the physical materials

within a particular contextual settingwhere humans find themselves could significantly influence their

behavior. According to Shove (2010), various elements in the environment play a major role in forming,

arranging and avoiding particular behaviors. (Reckwitz 2002) further upheld that, most proponents of

SPT believed that the behavior of humans are not just by virtue of their locational parameters but rather,

individuals exhibit conducts which they have built over time. It is therefore worth noting that, at the heart

of SPT is the fact that humans are not independent of their conduct but rather they form habitswhich

eventually become their routinized behavior.

Innovation diffusion theory (IDT)

Innovation diffusion theory (IDT) as proposed by Rogers (1962) had its concentration on appreciating the

processes, reasons and degree of disseminating innovations in a societal structure and it was further fine-

tuned by (Rogers, 1995). Unlike the other behavioral change theories, Robinson (2009) contended that,


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IDT does not target convincing the individual to change habits but rather stressed that, at the heart of

change, is the existence of innovations which offer humans a more appropriate and convenient means of

executing tasks. Impliedly, change rather occurs with ideas, systems and products but not with humans

since humans only adopt new systems and adjust to them.

Trans-theoretical Model (TM) or Stages of Change Model (SCM)

Advocates of this model indicated that there are seven critical phases that individual who change their

behaviors go through before adopting the new habits. These phases include the following; the pre-

contemplation stage, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, relapse and upward spiral stages of

the behavior (Prochaska, 1979; Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983). They further emphasized that any

strategy design to transform habits must first appreciate the particular stage in the change process that the

person has gotten to. This will offer the experts the required information to come up with mediation

measures that could provide the required direction in behavior transformation.

Cognitive Behavioral Frameworks

Over the past 4 decades, many research works have focused on human behavioral frameworks mainly

using cognitive process through a „need-action-event‟ concept. These frameworks factor the human being

as an agent who responds to stimuli rather than the human beingas an inactive receptor in a context based

setting. These frameworks therefore consider the relationship between the inputs of human (drivers and

needs) and the outputs of the environment (actions and events) as having a highly randomized pattern and

unpredictable (Hong et al., 2015). In that regards, the environment in which humans find themselves

could significant influence their actions.

Pierre Bourdou‟s Concept of Habitus

According to Camic (1986), the concept of habit was considered mainly as a biological reflex by

behaviorism. This means most actions by an individual areas a result of the human system reacting to the

immediate environment in order to achieve an expected satisfaction within the context. According to

Bourdieu (1990a), habitus is a concept gotten from the Latin verb “habere” which means “to have” or “to

hold”. This theory resulted from an enquiry into establishing how the actions of human were controlled

by; specifically, analyzing the rationale behind how humansare able to act in an organized format, if not

by means of compliance to elements within the external environment as well as purposeful motives. He

therefore considered habitus as a system consisting of the complexities of both resilient psychological and


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physical ideologies, structures and capabilities. Bourdieu further argued that, habitus created and

consolidated certain practices and symbolisms in humans which became part of their daily routine

activities. Such routinized practices were not because of a conscious mastery of them as a process of

acquiring them (Bourdieu, 1986). According to Bourdieu self-identity was the resultant effect of the

internalization procedure which usually leads to the establishment of a person‟s habitus. He further

indicated that, social interaction processes like imitation, recurrence, role-play and participation in games

were significant in acquiring habitus dispositions. Hence, the manner in which societal philosophy and

personal history form the body and thoughts of the people as well as their current social activities is their

habitus (Bourdieu, 1977). This habitus could be in the form of the social class, faith, race, origin,

schooling and occupation (Lizardo, 2004),including aesthetics, taste and lifestyles (Bourdieu, 1984).

Methodology

This study adopted extensive review of relevant literature from peered reviewed papers and journals to

explore the pertinent human behavior theories and frameworks. As a methodological approach, literature

review is significant on its merits and uses Interpretivism as a means of analytical process (Tuli, 2010).

This method was therefore relevant for the purposes of achieving the objectives of this exploratory

research.

A keyword based search for literature was the first step in the process. These were conducted in scientific

database and search engines like Building and Environment Journal, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy

Journal, Energy and Buildings Journal, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and a number of academic thesis

publications. These searches were from 1960 to 2017 to ensure that, accessed works reflected the

historical antecedents and also the current trends in the field of study. These searches were done using

keywords such as “behaviorism”, “occupant behavior”, “behavioral change theories”, “occupant behavior

theories”, “electric energy end-use wastage”, “drivers of energy use”, “building occupants habits and

actions”, “habitus” and “building energy usage”. These searches produced 113 relevant papers which

were subsequently analyzed and organized based on themes and patterns of this research.

The end product was a behaviour change framework that could be adopted for campaign programs against

residential electric energy wastage through occupants‟ behaviour change and sustenance. This framework

is expected to be focused on the identified integrated electric energy related behaviors in households.


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Findings and discussions

Energy-Related Occupant Behavior

These are the actions and reactions of building occupants in their homes, to adapt to their environment

due to the impact of both internal and external factors such as temperature, solar radiation and

atmospheric moisture content. D‟Oca and Hong(2014) upheld that, the effect of the behavioral patterns of

the occupants on energy usage in buildings as well as the indoor environment is very complicated and any

simplification of it could result in major deviation from their predicted energy usage. In that regards, the

relationship between the building and occupants should be considered as a self-motivated one, in order to

ensure more accurate energy usage predictions (Dong and Lam, 2011). Table 1 shows an integrated

energy related occupant behavior that TAMB could target in ensuring major energy savings in households

through occupants‟ behavioral changes.

Table 1: Summary of energy related building occupant behavior

No. Energy Related Occupant Behavior Source

1 Lighting Yan et al., (2015), D‟Oca and Hong (2014),

Reinhart et al. (2004), Mahdavi et al. (2006), Hoes

et al. (2009)

2 Cooling/ Air conditioning/ heating Yan et al., (2015), Li et al. (2014), (EIA, 2013),

Guerra-Santin (2011)

3 Comfort control Haldi and Robinson (2008)

4 Windows and ventilation Yan et al., (2015),

5 Windows and daylighting D‟Oca and Hong (2014),

6 Windows and shading Mahdavi (2012)

7 Acoustic (Noise) control Warren and Purkins (1984), (Hoes et al., 2009)

8 Appliances/ equipment usage Yan et al., (2015), Guerra Santin et al. (2009),

Guerra Santin et al. (2009)

9 Visual comfort/ privacy Zhang and Barrett (2012), Foster and Oreszczyn

(2001), Foster and Oreszczyn (2001)

10 Indoor air quality Hoes et al. (2009), Li et al. (2014)

11 General household chores Duong et al., (2006)

Source: Author construct


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Proposed Behavior Change framework

Considering the discussed human behavior concepts and theories, energy related behaviors and challenges

in behaviour change, the study developed an integrated behaviour change framework, called the Theory

of Assured Maintenance Behavior (TAMB).This was based on the integration of the strengths of the

various theories as opined by Abrahamse et al. (2007) for the development of an effective change

framework. Wilson and Dowlatabadi (2007) also emphasized that though integrated different model and

theories may be complicated, they offered significant impacts on occupants and hence called for more

research into integrated approaches since that was the right way to go. TAMB is expected to be used in

fostering electric energy related behavioral changes in residential building occupants through sensitization

programs. The uniqueness of this framework is the fact that, it goes beyond just fostering probable change

of building occupants, and further facilitates the sustenance of the modified energy efficient occupant

behaviour as shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 4: The Theory of Assured Maintenance Behavior (TAMB) structural diagram

Source: TAMB structural diagram adapted from (Ajzen, 1991; Munro et al. 2007; Prochaska et al. 1992).

From the structural diagram of TAMB, the critical elements for behavior prediction and change starts

from the external contextual factors of the individual such as demographic factors of the individuals‟,

self-identity, values and philosophies vigorously argued by Stern (2011). These factors are expected to

affect the positive development of the next four key elements in the hierarchy of TAMB, which are; i)

attitude towards behavior; ii) subjective norms; iii) perceived behavior control; and iv) perceived threats

of behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; Sharma and Romas, 2012).

An energy positive disposition of these four factors could significantly affect the willingness of the

occupant in adopting the next three factors in the hierarchy of the TAMB structural diagram which are

critical in minimizing energy wastage. They are; i) Material culture which involves insulation properties


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of the building, energy based devices and systems, technology in the building, energy sources; ii)

Cognitive norms which include expected comfort levels, environmental concerns and social aspirations;

and iii) Energy practices (habits) which include size of home, number of rooms, cooling devices, cooling

settings, hours of cooling and maintenance of the technologies in the building.

The above steps constitute the critical sensitization process of TAMB. It must be emphasized as

vigorously argued by Robinson (2009) that, TAMB at this stage would go beyond just persuading

occupants to further ensure that inefficient energy based systems are removed and prevented from getting

into the country and for that matter households. With the occupant‟s level of awareness on these factors

provided, the occupant is expected to move into the next stage of “contemplation/ evaluation” mode

where an assessment of the implications of the preceding factors on his energy consumption are made. It

must be noted that, humans do not always act rationally with energy behaviors and hence would likely

prefer paying energy bills to spending a major part of their income on EE options (Kahneman &

Tversky 1984). In that regards, this stage must be followed simultaneously with the “motivation and re-

assurance” stage through educative and campaign programs in national media like TV, radio and

billboards (including advertising screens) to provide the needed materials, cognitive norms and energy

practices for being energy efficient.

The campaign must further highlight the various incentives, subsidies and rebates for occupants who opt

for energy efficient systems in their homes. Emphasis must also be placed on the need for behavior

change and the negative effects of uncontrolled energy wastage on the occupant and the environment as a

whole. The role of key personalities in the community as change agents in this campaign program cannot

be overemphasized and hence their inclusion could solicit major occupant support for the change program

(Stern, 2011). Consequently, occupants are expected to move towards the formation of energy efficiency

intentions to change existing energy inefficient related behaviors and purchase energy efficient systems. It

noteworthy to stress that, this is a critical stage and hence requires consistency in re-assuring the occupant

on the need and benefits to pursue the course of change. The execution of energy related behaviors are

significantly contingent on the intentions that are formed (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1985;

Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Manfredo, 1992; Lynne, 1995). In that regards, all the educational and

sensitization programs must be geared towards motivating the building occupant towards the formation of

energy efficient intentions to ensure energy sustainability.


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To prevent potential behaviour relapse as argued vigorously by Prochaska (1979) and sustain energy

related behavioral change of building occupants, there is the need for a behavior maintenance program

that will continuously emphasize the benefits of the change for the occupant and environment, incentives

for adopting EE, and alternatives of EE innovations. If occupants are not well motivated there could be a

potential relapse to the pre-contemplation/ evaluation stage which should call for re-motivation.

Wang et al (2012) opined that, there were two critical factors that should be considered to ensure the

reduction of electric energy wastage in residential homes. They were; (i) how the existing wastage could

be defined, and (ii) how the buildings energy performance could be assessed. Impliedly, tackling

occupant-based electric energy wastage in residential homes requires clear behaviour target areas

(integrated energy related occupants‟ behaviour) where the wastage occurs in order to provide sustainable

measures to cure the waste. This study therefore, identified integrated energy related occupant behaviors

prevalent in residential homes as shown in Table1. TAMB is expected to be applied to them to foster

positive energy efficient changes in occupants‟ behaviour and increase occupants‟ adoption of EE

systems.

Conclusions

It is evidently clear that the building occupant plays a major role in determining the level of end use

electric energy wastage in households and hence the need for greater programs targeted at motivating

them to be energy efficient. In that effort, the supportive role of technology cannot be overemphasized.

However, majority of research works into energy-related occupants‟ behavior tend to force behavioral

changes on building occupants whereas others try to predetermine the indoor environment and expect the

occupants to internalize and respond in an expected manner. Some of them also just focused on the self

(individual occupant) without considering the fact that other social, economic and environment factors

play major roles in ensuring change.

TAMB in an attempt to cure these lapses adopted a multifarious concept as opined by (Lutzenhizer,

2009; Randazzo & Peters, 2011) through an all-inclusive manner to motivate occupants to be

green.TAMB focused on demographic factors of the building occupants‟ as the core stimuli of habits,

through providing them with the required knowledge and indoor environment, adopted vigorous

campaign programs to motivate EE changes, and eventually providing them with the enabling

environment to ensure the sustenance of the changes.


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Considering the fact that between 20% to 50% of energy consumption are attributable to the occupant

factor (PC Energy Report, 2009) achieving an energy efficient occupant factor through the

implementation of TAMB could significantly result in reduced residential end -use electric energy

wastage.

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