Abstract:

Covid-19 erased what was considered ‘normal’ in the higher education sphere worldwide. For developed countries, the move to online learning and teaching was less traumatic and challenging than for developing countries on the African continent. In South Africa, moving online also broaden the divide between rich and poor, between those who could proceed with the times and those who were left behind because of their socio-economic statuses. Consequently, the 2020 academic year has seen many undergraduate students battling poverty, learning challenges and mental health issues. This paper reports on a study conducted at a historically Black university in South Africa that examined first-year students’ learning experiences in academic literacies courses in four of the university’s seven faculties. We attempt to answer the question: How could students be assisted and empowered to successfully participate in online learning and teaching given the fact that a vast majority of them are from disadvantaged backgrounds?

Much research has been conducted in academic development, and more specifically, on students’ learning needs and challenges. However, not many studies used a different lens on evaluating the offering of academic literacies’ courses to first-year students at public universities in South Africa, given the current climate of lockdown and the move to online learning and teaching.

The study was positioned within a qualitative research paradigm where a participatory evaluation research design was employed. The conceptual framework was derived from combining the strengths of the three academic literacies’ UK models and the hybrid practice South American model. We arrived at a four-dimensional embedded hybrid academic literacies model that consists of:
1. Students’ personal factors;
2. Students’ academic factors;
3. Content knowledge and skills development factor; and
4. Lecturers academic development factors.

Dimension 1 considers students’ socio-economic backgrounds and home environments.
Dimension 2 focuses on students’ academic orientation and agency and adjusting from high school to the university environment.
Dimension 3 looked at discipline-specific requirements and competencies, and
Dimension 4 centred around academic developers’ teaching philosophies and pedagogical approaches.

We argued that academic literacies courses designed to care about students’ well-being and are hybrid, flexible and embedded into cognate disciplines could provide first-year students with holistic support. We recommended close collaboration between academic development practitioners and discipline-specific academics and a pedagogy of care that would provide a safe, supportive and enabling learning environment for first-year students. Doing so would allow students to develop into self-regulating and competent young adults who would succeed in their respective degree programmes.

Keywords:

Student success, first-year students, academic literacies, embedded hybridity, cognate disciplines, self-efficacy, agency.