Page 82 - UniZulu Annual Report 2020

TEACHING AND LEARNING DURING THE
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The 2020 academic year and accompanying academic activities were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The University’s TLP, Teaching and Learning Policy and E-Learning Policy, as recommended by Senate and approved by Council before the COVID-19 pandemic, however, already created an explicit place for the use of technologies and blended learning modalities to distribute learning opportunities to students. With Senate’s approval and Council’s endorsement, the University’s 2020 calendar was adjusted to cater for the completion of the 2020 calendar year. It was based on the principles of saving the academic year and ensuring that no student was left behind. The adjusted calendar comprised a very comprehensive and meticulous programme to cater for a staggered approach of bringing students back to the University in line with the guidelines provided by the National Command Council according to different national lockdown levels, as advised by the HEST Minister.
UNIZULU also established a Multimodal Teaching and Learning Task Team (MMTLTT) with the mandate to develop a plan and carry out the multimodal teaching and learning mandate to achieve seven objectives:
• To ensure that staff could teach and maintain continuous
communication with students using the online platform
• To equip students with necessary skills to learn remotely (online, technology, blended and flexible) and to empower tutors, mentors and class representatives to use Moodle and other means of materials for the benefit
of the student cohort
• To ensure that necessary resources were available for
academic staff and students and distributed accordingly
for the ease of online teaching and learning
• To ensure that online assessments were conducted
while maintaining quality;
• To revise some components of the curriculum content
to enable smooth alignment with the revised academic calendar and available resources to accommodate all students fairly
UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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