Johannesburg – Education experts have urged prospective students should seriously investigate the distance- learning capabilities of the tertiary institutions when considering furthering their studies. This is as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of letting up.
During the pandemic in 2020, many South African tertiary institutions had to urgently implement online learning to continue and complete the academic year.
This meant a collective scramble to gain the appropriate technical and pedagogical skills of online learning and teaching.
Leaders in higher education are acknowledging that the new model is bringing benefits. UCT vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng told The Conversation Africa that “many of our academics say they will never again teach in the same way as before”. Outgoing Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib forecasts a stronger shift to a blended learning model: “Anecdotal evidence is showing that our students are performing better in the online environment than face to face. This suggests we need to reimagine how we test and assess our students’ capabilities.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has raised significant challenges for the higher education community worldwide. A particular challenge has been the urgent and unexpected request for previously face-to-face university courses to be taught online. Online teaching and learning imply a certain pedagogical content knowledge, mainly related to designing and organising for better learning experiences and creating distinctive learning environments, with the help of digital technologies. Dr Divya Singh, the chief academic officer of Stadio Higher Education, said Covid-19 impelled the transition to online learning and forced academics and students alike to catch up faster than would otherwise have happened.
“At our institutions – many of which already had good e-learning platforms in place – Covid-19 made us realise the importance of a good e-learning system and the value of the investment. Our platforms were integral to enabling a relatively uninterrupted year of learning and teaching.”
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