Page 83 - UniZulu Annual Report 2020

• To cater for students who may not have been able to participate fully on the online platforms
• To conduct research to measure the success of multimodal teaching
Given the existing challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the University commenced with a Digital Learning Needs and Access Survey to establish student needs to address the support and materials required to enable effective learning. The analysis was done to provide an overview of the UNIZULU student readiness for online learning and access to internet connectivity. The University identified a variety of means and activities that would collectively ensure that the objectives of the multimodal plan could be achieved, namely:
• Identifying seasoned instructional design practitioners to guide the University through the transition from contact mode to online learning and teaching. This included a guided development of expertise to understand multimodal teaching pedagogies and how these theoretical frameworks underpin the design of learning
•
•
•
materials and the adoption of pedagogies that shape effective learning
Training UNIZULU academics on the development of both e-learning and print learning resources. This training entailed developing competence in digital and online curriculum packaging (content selection, content presentation, content sequencing and pegging, developing accumulative assessment tasks to guide and assess effective learning across the entire learning journey, and providing feedback and support to learners) Training academics on online and digital pedagogies. Lecturers needed to acquire skills to facilitate effective learning through various media and develop skills to distribute learning opportunities by presenting content, co-constructing meaning and ensuring that desired learning took place. For this to be successful, academics needed to develop professional teaching expertise that straddles the various approaches to teaching and learning Guiding, coaching and mentoring academics in the design of E-Learning educational resources. Given that this was new territory for most UNIZULU academics, an
81
UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020