College of Science, Engineering & Technology
I-SET and the migration to the digital community engagement space due to the pandemic
Inspired towards Science, Engineering and Technology (I-SET), a community engagement flagship project of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) migrated from in-person workshops and exhibitions to a virtual space in June 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I-SET started to host and present all I-SET robotics workshops, training and day-to-day community relations virtually through Microsoft Teams and other online platforms.
Face-to-face group workshops have always been a formal way of running the robotics workshops for I-SET and the pandemic has given the project the opportunity to use the chat-based collaboration tool to allow remote teams to host these workshops and help to maintain the aim of the project.
Microsoft Teams has brought great value to the project with a seamless move to a digital workplace and allowed new team members (I-SET interns) to quickly get up to speed. Migrating to a virtual space has benefited the I-SET project as it has forced the team to use technology and prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). It also prepares our external stakeholders in the online community to change the way they live and to gain the necessary skills for the 4IR, such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others as well as emotional intelligence. Once they are prepared or geared up for the 4IR, this will change how they communicate and in the future, it will change the things they value and the way they value them.
Over the years, I-SET has been engaging in focus groups when conducting I-SET robotics workshops for learners, educators, buddy training and the public at large. However, since the beginning of the pandemic, I-SET has been hosting I-SET live online learning workshops that are open to the public through Microsoft Teams. Every week I-SET presents a different hour-long workshop that includes engagement with the participants. The workshops have been doing exceptionally well and the participation analytics speak for themselves. The learning content of most of the sessions is available on the Unisa MOOC portal at https://mooc.unisa.ac.za/portal.
Online community engagement allows I-SET to reach a wider community (albeit online) with greater impact due to the multiple engagement opportunities. I-SET wishes to thank the dedicated online community members for their ongoing participation and inspired dedication to science engagement in this country.This is the perfect time for I-SET to move towards the 4IR.
For more information, visit the I-SET website or find us on Facebook and Twitter. To request the monthly schedule of I-SET Robotics Live Online Learning activities, please e-mail Andzani at I-SET@unisa.ac.za.
* by Andzani Sibiya, I-SET Science Communication Administrator
Publish date: 2021-08-24 00:00:00.0
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