To stem the spread of Covid-19, more than 1.4 billion students were barred from going to schools, colleges and universities, according to a recent UNESCO report. In mid-March, it seemed that overnight some educators were suddenly tasked with maintaining the learning context by abandoning classroom-based teaching and going online. Online teaching requires different types of skills - including pedagogical, technical, communication and collaborative skills - that may not match those with which educators are familiar.
To enable this transition from the traditional teaching mode to online delivery, educators require training and assistance. To address this urgent need for rapidly upskilling educators to pivot online, Unisa staff members in the College of Education, led by Prof Mpine Makoe, incumbent of the Commonwealth of Learning Chair: Open Education Practices/Resources (OER/OEP), developed an intervention programme aimed at preparing educators for teaching online.
In this programme, participants are guided through two courses: Digital literacies for online learning, produced by the OERu in New Zealand, and Take your teaching online, from the Open University in the United Kingdom. Both courses are free, offer a certificate of completion, and provide a foundational understanding of navigating the digital space and teaching in an online environment. Students are supported by a tutor and peers through the mobile-based application, WhatsApp.
In the first two weeks of the programme, more than 300 students showed interest. Riëtte Els (69) was amongst the first cohort of 50 participants who signed up for the course and she completed it within three weeks.
We were totally locked down during Level 5 to prevent Covid-19 from spreading. All was doom and gloom - no good news was reaching any house in South Africa - when, out of the blue, I received an e-mail from Unisa asking me if I would care to join a Zoom meeting about online courses with the weird names of Digital literacy and Take your teaching online.
My immediate response was to reply "definitely not". At my age, I am not even sure if I will survive Covid-19! I am not the digital type; I am very old school!
However, tired of watching negative news reports on television, worrying about our son who suffers from cystic fibrosis and making three-layered masks for all I know, I decided that this old dinosaur would join the Zoom meeting!
I must admit this was one of the best choices I have ever made!
It would seem that Unisa does not regard age as a stumbling block. They just encourage people to keep on studying and stay lifelong learners. It took me a few days to complete the masks I had promised and then I could embark on my studies.
It was daunting at first and I had to stop watching Covid-19 reports and concentrate instead on this "OERu" problem (as in Afrikaans oer oud [very old]). I was here and there and completely lost in the forest and more than once I ended up next to the same tree. After many attempts, I saw a glimmer of light shining through the dark, but just as I became confident, I had to register a blog!!
Being old-school people, we are not good networkers. I phoned a yuppie niece, but she was not of much help except telling me to use an impressive name for my blog.
I struggled to paste a picture on the camera icon as instructed. I do wear spectacles, but it did not help because there is no camera icon. I then get my highly educated daughter to log onto my laptop via TeamViewer. I now know a paperclip is not only for keeping money together but to paste a photo online. My husband started showed interest and gave advice. This was a case of one illiterate dinosaur helping another illiterate dinosaur.
Suddenly we realised that we were so occupied that we were forgetting to switch our TV on during the day. Hubby started cooking and I carried on with my new course. It was not long before I completed all the assignments and received a badge and certificate of completion. I did not waste time; I lunged into my second course and completed it within seven days.
Is Covid-19 all doom and gloom? No, it created an opportunity for me. Thank you, Unisa, and carry on keeping new opportunities alive.
* By Dineo Horner, Acting Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Education
Publish date: 2020-06-22 00:00:00.0