INDUSTRY WATCH
LECTURERS ALSO USED
THE PLATFORM TO
SUPPORT STUDENTS FOR
CONSULTATIONS AND
POST-GRADUATE SUPPORT.
The shutdown of South Africa’s
institutions of higher learning
is not a new phenomenon, with
the country having experienced several
severe interruptions to its university
academic programmes in recent memory.
During these periods of disruption,
primarily driven by social and political
movements, universities have had
to adopt online learning strategies
to accommodate their students and
lecturers. However, the current COVID-19
pandemic is placing unprecedented
demands on institutions of higher
learning to ensure academic continuity.
In recent history, during the period
between 2015 and 2017, South
African universities have had to endure
prolonged spells of violent unrest and
shutdowns that resulted from student-led
protests such as #RhodesMustFall and
#FeesMustFall, which impacted most of
the country’s public universities.
To complete the academic year,
universities were left to find blended
learning solutions, to ensure some
resemblance of academic continuity. As
fully online learning was a new concept
for the country’s universities at the time,
each institution was left to adopt a
unique approach. Approaches adopted
were often supported by decisions around
technology capacity and limitations in
what these digital solutions offer.
Keeping it simple
“This came with the added pressures
of providing training for teaching staff,
who had to be familiarised with the new
technology. Significantly, this was a
learning curve for universities, many of
which realised that they had to leverage
existing systems, adapt to the devices
and technology available to students
while trying to keep things as simple
as possible,” said Robert Speed, Vice
President for the Middle East and Africa
at Blackboard.
“It was also an eye-opener globally for
many institutions of higher learning in
terms of how their technology offerings
were received by students and lecturers,
specifically from a usability perspective.
All considered this should have also
been an opportunity for the country’s
universities to take note and map their
future technology needs,” added Speed.
The current COVID-19 pandemic is
arguably the most disruptive event in the
history of the global education sector,
with South Africa’s universities similarly
finding themselves in a space where
online learning is firmly establishing itself
as the new normal.
“Those that have been early adopters
of digital learning solutions, or those
who learned lessons from the previous
shutdowns and mapped out their
technology deployment needs, should
have an easier time of adapting to the
new model, as universities across the
country reopen online,” said Speed.
Early adopter
The University of Pretoria (UP) is one
such institution, having adopted digital
learning solutions as early as 1998. In
2011 the university deployed Blackboard
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