Education Faculty: Blended Learning Arrangements [planning, design, development prior and during to pandemic/national lockdown]

Education Faculty: Blended Learning Arrangements [planning, design, development prior and during to pandemic/national lockdown]

Monday, March 29, 2021

 

Lecturers in the Education Faculty created a number of 90 online modules within iKamva, for the 2020 academic year. Lecturers have made use of various eTools (content creation, communication and assessment), including the integration of Turnitin (Tii).

Structured Interactive Online Environments

Lecturers created structured online environments to provide students with relevant interactive learning material such as videos, PowerPoint presentations, articles and documents. The ‘Lessons eTool’ is used to present content in an interactive manner by embedding presentations, videos, and other learning material.

Online Reading Corner

An ‘online reading corner’ was created by a lecturer, which was aimed at motivating students to read different literature pieces and share their feedback within the Discussion Forum.

Online Meetings

Lecturers engaged in online meetings with their students, using various online meeting applications (BBB, Zoom & Google Meet).

Weekly Assessment Activities

Students were expected to engage in weekly tasks which were designed within the Tests & Quizzes eTool. These tasks included the use of various question types such as True-and-False, Short Answer and Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs). Formative tasks were used as a form of consolidation of course content; and also, a space for reflection and goal setting. In addition, these tasks assisted with reinforcement, revision and preparation for examinations as well as their future careers as educators.

Assessment submissions: Turnitin (anti-plagiarism) platform prior to final submission

‘Take-home’ assessments were set up, whereby students needed to submit a research proposal. Rubrics were shared with students which entailed the assessment criteria. These assessments were set-up and students were expected to submit assignments within the Tii platform, prior to final online submission (link within iKamva: ‘use Tii plagiarism service’). The students were given sufficient time in order to submit and edit accordingly for re-submission purposes.

Course Evaluation

Students were required to complete evaluations (surveys shared via iKamva) - which provided feedback to the lecturers around their teaching and learning approaches; and student learning and progress.

Group assignments and structured reflective assessment tasks

A lecturer within the Language and Education Department has created structured online environments for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Various individual and group assessment tasks were created. The students were expected to join a specific group, contribute to the group sessions; submit group assignments; as well as individual reflective pieces.

Use of WhatsApp for assessment purposes: Supplement the online environment

Students created WhatsApp recordings/podcasts (oral assessment task) aligned to specific topics. The reflective oral tasks were uploaded via the ‘Assignments eTool’ within iKamva.

Design & Development of ePortfolios

ePortfolios have been used as practical tools for teaching and assessment purposes. The CIECT team assisted the students (undergraduates across 3 modules, and various year levels) to design and develop ePortfolios. The final ePortfolios were shared with the lecturers for assessment purposes.

Integration of Math tool for Graphing, Geometry, 3D Visualisation

A lecturer within the Math Education Department has made use of an external tool which was integrated within the iKamva lessons tool.

The external tool GeoGebra (https://www.geogebra.org) was implemented in order for students to practice using the online math tools for graphing, geometry 3D and more. Students are able to download the program on their laptops or PCs and as an App on their smartphones. The benefits are numerous as the students' learning is more meaningful, as concepts are visualised in real time. Short tests were set up to enable students to assess and reinforce learning as they received their scores immediately. Students were able to repeatedly engage in these self-assessment tests.