Abstract:

Stellenbosch University (SU), a residential research-intensive university in South Africa, had to like many other higher education institutions across the world, switch from mainly on-campus, contact teaching to emergency remote teaching, learning and assessment (ERTLA) in April 2020. This created unique challenges within the African context with stark (digital) inequalities. Pragmatic and creative solutions had to be found to address the complex challenges faced by the diverse student and staff body. SU identified two overarching institutional priorities: Ensuring that students can successfully complete their academic year as well as the sustainability of the institution.

Fortunately, SU could build on more than 20 years of using learning technologies as part of its blended learning strategy for on-campus delivery as well as a solid IT infrastructure to deliver on these overarching institutional priorities. The University immediately had to focus on the provision of data bundles and devices to students – a challenge in itself because of the limited availability of devices and the travel limits as part of lockdown regulations.

Extensive support resources (webinars and online resources) were developed in record time to support academic staff members to pivot all their learning and teaching activities online using “data light” technologies. With the high cost of data in (South) Africa, lecturers had to focus on asynchronous methodologies such as short podcasts and voice-over Powerpoints that could be housed on the Learning Management System (LMS) which was zero-rated by mobile network operators thereby incurring no costs for students and staff. Live synchronous streaming activities were discouraged during ERTLA. When SU could invite more students back to campus during the second half of 2020, the University started investing in streaming equipment in lecture venues to enable students who could not physically attend class due to COVID regulations, to participate remotely as part of the augmented remote learning, teaching and assessment (ARTLA) strategy. This investment into the streaming infrastructure will also benefit the University’s hybrid learning strategy in that students who cannot be on campus physically can still participate remotely in live lectures. The pivot online was a steep learning curve for all with re-imagining reliable, fair and authentic summative assessments in an online environment probably one of the biggest challenges.

Maximum synergy was created between all stakeholders (students, academic and administrative staff) through a learning, teaching and assessment business continuity workgroup that operated across silo’s focusing on student and staff support, the adjustment of the academic programme and calendar as well as the stability of the technology platforms.

This paper will reflect on how the valuable lessons learned in terms of lecturer and student support, online learning and assessment as well as institutional leadership and collaboration can inform the institutional hybrid learning strategy moving forward. This institutional hybrid learning strategy focuses on giving access to students who would otherwise not have been able to study. An underserved market for SU’s academic offering is for students who are already in the workplace and prefer to further their education through more flexible offerings that incorporate sustained periods of online learning.

Keywords:

Online learning, COVID-19, emergency remote teaching, learning and assessment, learning technologies, institutional leadership.