Abstract:

The central purpose of this paper is to outline both the problems and the gains of presenting Spirituality as an academic university subject via electronic means. In the first section of this paper, a description is given of the technological mode of higher learning followed at the University of South Africa, a mega-university in distance-education format with more than 400 000 students internationally. In the second section of this paper, the case is made that, when the Humanities are taught and researched within such a context, the ways in which technological media affect the mode of educational interaction are clearly encountered by all parties involved in the educational process. Traditional contact tuition and personal interaction are replaced by modern e-tuition and mediated interaction. Technologies and the Humanities are blended, not only in course presentation format, but also in their broader effects. In the third and most extensive section of this paper, the ways are analysed in which such impacts are encountered in one of the newest yet most research- productive disciplines at the University of South Africa, Spirituality (in which the experience of the “Big Questions” of life, on e.g. ultimate meaning and basic humanity, are studied academically). This is done by drawing on the author’s substantial professional experience and his academic publications on this matter, brought into discussion with related research materials and policy documents. In closing, proposals are made towards the benefit of Humanities disciplines and the technologically oriented university, in their blended Technology-Humanity symbiosis.

Keywords:

e-learning, Spirituality, Humanities, mega-university, distance-education.