Open Source Software (OSS) provide a number of advantages to Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) in developing countries, such as Tanzania. This is because they are freely available, free to make copies and free to distribute. Through literature reviewed, it has been observed that OSS usage in HLIs in Tanzania is low due to lack of awareness of OSS designed for academic purposes. This paper presents a study on how to implement a reliable and effective web-based application tool for recommendation of OSS for enhancing awareness of HLIs on existing OSS designed for academic purposes. There are three recommendation algorithms that were employed for filtering the OSS in this study: the content-based, collaborative, and demographic filtering. We used various web technologies for the implementation of application functionalities. The result is the reliable and effective web-based application tool that recommends OSS to individuals in HLIs for enhancing their awareness of OSS designed for academic purposes.

Currently, the online discussion forums have become the focal point for e-learning in many Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs); this is due to the ubiquitous of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, significant rate and fast growing technology adoption and use in many fields including education. However, developing countries, such as Tanzania, are experiencing technical adoption difficulties, such as limited access to computers, problems with Internet connections as well as the technological reliance gap between tutors and learners; these affect the use of technology in Teaching and Learning (T/L). This study aims to use an Online Discussion Platform (onlineDP) to bridge the technological reliance gap between the tutors and learners in HLIs in Tanzania. In this study, the literature review and qualitative research methods were conducted to develop the prototype of the platform. The UMBC semantic similarity service was used to develop the contents filter used to reduce the number of duplicate discussion questions. The application was mainly developed using Laravel Pre-processor (PHP) framework and My Structured Query Language (MySQL) database. The result is the web-based application prototype that enhances the collaborative learning environment in HLIs in Tanzania. The technologies to be used for T/L, should consider both sides of tutors and learners as well as the theoretical framework for their implementations.