Abstract:

Big data, data analytics, information and its innovative exploitation are the epitome of the 4th industrial revolution. In the same breadth, higher education is expected to prepare a graduate for a productive life in respective professions after graduation, meaning that the curriculum should empower them as such. Educational tools and systems thus, become key to this process. For, since the ability to harvest, exploit and manipulate data will continue to shape a competitive potential of the 4th industrial revolution innovator, the University system should pitch with curricula, pedagogies and relevant enablers (tools and systems) to empower a modern learner. Indeed, if multi-level customer interactions and customer profiling, the world of augmented reality and 3D printing, mobile devices and big data analytics are the order of the day, then clearly teaching and learning solutions should also be adapt to the needs for electronic authentication and fraud detection in case of remote participation and collaborations, location detection for mobile learners, a greater data storage and exchange potential for interactive international collaborating learners, cloud computing and similar solutions become a basic requirement. A shift in computer assisted learning discourse, from trivial questions of educational technology adoption, into theories of innovative learning through creative harvesting and engagement of big data, underscores this reality. For, in the digitisation era where advanced human-machine interfaces has become a defining component, traditional uses of learning management systems may be fast become obsolete. Of increasing relevance, instead, are enablers of mobility, independence, collaboration, interactive, experiential and innovative engagements with knowledge in learning facilitative solutions for the modern learner. In this paper, we look into the Southern African universities responses to the ever evolving technological developments in its deployment of the Learning management systems. Using a combination of experiment methodology to develop a cloud based solution, and a survey to gauge learner practices, we explore electronic tools in use by a modern university student in South Africa and Zimbabwe to explore institutional adaption to the technological evolutions of the modern era. A cloud based solution to regional collaboration over institutional learning management systems is presented as the initial recommendation.

Keywords:

Cloud-based Learning management system, Heterogeneous learning management system, collaborative learning, mobile learning.