Page 29 - DUT Annual Report 2023

DUT maximised its resources for advancing learning and teaching through allocated grants focussed on staff development, student development, and curriculum development.
To this end, the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) contributed to enhancing curricula transformation and teaching, learning and assessment practices through continued professional development, with institutional programmes and faculty and/or departmental specific academic professional development programmes. This allowed for the development of teaching and learning practices that recognised the specificities and peculiarities of different fields of study. Institutional programmes included the Academic Induction Programme which serves as an integral platform for the professional development of newly appointed academic staff, offering them a comprehensive introduction to the policies, procedures, and practices of the university. In 2023, the semester long Academic Induction Programme was held in both semesters with a total of 43 new academic staff. Included with the induction programmes was the integration of the Living Educational Theory which is a values-based methodology for improving educational practices through asking questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’. The DUT staff engaged in developing their living posters in their quest to improve their practices and shared these on a global platform.
Curriculum Conversations, initiated during COVID-19, continued to be a useful online collaborative developmental session that allowed academics across multiple campuses to discuss and deliberate on key contemporary issues impacting curriculum conceptualisation and implementation in higher education, and DUT more specifically.
Advancing digitisation in higher education, CELT facilitated Moodle webinar series twice in 2023 which was expanded to develop lecturers’ confidence in adhering to assessment integrity in the age of AI, and to include Accessibility and Inclusion as topics. Another popular tool is the use of MS Teams. Capacity Development on MS Teams is located within the eLearning ecosystem at DUT and complements the institutional learning management system (LMS) by
enhancing interactive engagements both asynchronously and synchronously. At the meso level, the engagements provided common ground for dialogue and collaboration, as well as reflection, through the development of professional communities of practice. At the macro level, the acquired digital fluency and capabilities extend within and beyond the parameters of the higher education sphere through its established presence in industry and research in all domains, enabling our people to participate and lead, both regionally and globally. The activities of the MS Teams Staff Support project endorsed digital capacity as a fundamental literacy for the future.
DUT maximised its resources for advancing learning and teaching through allocated grants focused on staff development, student development, and curriculum development. CELT supported the application, implementation, and management of projects funded through University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP) grants. In 2023, 14 programmes were supported to extend its curriculum by an additional year to incorporate developmental provision that improves students’ chances for success through the DHET foundation grants for programme development, staff capacity development and student development.
In addition, DUT has been successful in securing grants that complement its institutional Growing our Own Timber (GOOT) programme, such as New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) and Nurturing Emerging Scholars Programme (NESP).
Additionally, in 2023, DUT improved its staffing profile through the employment of five new prestigious academics through the New Generation Academic Programme as well as two new appointments were also made in the New Emerging Scholars Programme. These scholars are supported by CELT through workshops, community of practice meetings, writing retreats, and individual consultations to complete their Master’s degrees and
DUT ANNUAL REPORT 2023
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