Poised for takeoff: using ICT to transform

teaching-and-learning at the

University of the Western Cape

 

Derek Keats

Executive Director, Information & Communication Services

University of the Western Cape, P. Bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa

 

Web

http://www.uwc.ac.za/ics/

Email

dkeats@uwc.ac.za

 

 

 

Summary

 

Although the University of the Western Cape is currently embarking on a programme to use ICTs to transform teaching-and-learning, the application of ICTs at UWC has a very checkered past. However, it is not unlike that of many other academic institutions in the world. Application of technology was initially mainly for administrative purposes, and was centred on mainframe technology. There was an absence of any strategy around the application and development of ICT within the university, with the result that it grew organically. Academics and students were initially left out of the equation, but major changes only happened as a result of pressure from academics, donors, and the development of capacity within the academic sector in spite of the institutional processes. The portfolio of Information and Communication Services (ICS) was only established in late 2001, and although an Integrated Information Strategy was developed, ICS has yet to prove itself in the implementation thereof. Transformation has yet to happen, but a number of projects currently underway are contributing to its eventual happening.

 

 

Introduction

 

The path of ICT implementation at UWC has been a rocky one, and there have been many challenges with some successes and failures along the way. An important feature of the history of ICT at UWC has been the fact that it has developed organically, in reaction to pressures applied, and in the complete absence of an ICT strategy until the first quarter of 2002. To understand the current situation, it is necessary to understand a little of the history of UWC, as well as the development of ICT since its establishment, particularly during the 1990s, and the decisions taken in 2001 that are now being implemented.

 

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) was established in 1960 as an ethnic college for “coloured” students. In the 1972 the University turned its back on this legacy by declaring itself non-racial, and in 1983 gained independence from direct political control. The University has always been a terrain of struggle for justice and empowerment. Throughout its 42-year history, it has played a pivotal role in South Africa’s liberation struggle against oppression and discrimination. UWC has been at the vanguard of the country’s historic change, playing a distinctive academic role in helping build an equitable and dynamic nation. The University continues to be a space in which to grow activists, educators and leaders. Many of UWC’s alumni and former senior academics find themselves in public office at all levels, including the national Cabinet.  Academics at UWC have played a leading role in much of the research and formulation of national policy.

 

ICT in the 1970s and 1980s

 

According to Ernie Smart (pers com), UWC acquired its first mainframe computer during 1977, a Univac 90/30 Series. In a trend that was to continue for nearly two decades, it was used for administrative purposes. There was considerable resistance to making computing power available to academic staff even into the early 1980s (J Aalbers, pers com). This legacy was still with us in 1989, when I joined UWC, where a department with 8 academic staff, 5 technical staff and over 200 students shared one computer and one printer! How ICT developed from this at UWC is an interesting story in itself.

 

The Systems Development Division was started in 1988, and from that time on, we developed our own administrative systems, mainly using Sperry and Unisys mainframes. Although not part of a systematic strategy, the systems developed were sufficiently robust that some parts of them are still in use today, even though running in a completely different computing environment.

 

In the 1980s, UWC established the PLATO project, with the primary academics involved being Profs D. Sinclair and M. Mehl. The PLATO system was developed by Dr. Donal Bizer of the University of Illinois in the mid 1970's, and was in part an automated courseware generator. Although PLATO and related systems made it relatively easy to produce courseware,  it constrained the author to a rather narrow, instructivist model of teaching (McNutt, 1994). Plato primarily provided computer assisted instruction, particularly drill and practice, to learners at school level. These learners were transported to the UWC campus for this purpose. Although the installation of the Plato system had a beneficial impact in terms of getting a few academics to look more closely at their teaching, it seems that it did not generate enthusiasm in the majority to incorporate CAI into their pedagogical approach (Prof. Cyril Julie, pers com).

 

ICT in the 1990s

 

During the early 1990’s, the UWC budget for ICT continued to be spent mainly on administrative computing, with very little on academic computing, and nothing on student computing.  Nevertheless, some of the infrastructure work was quite pioneering at the time. For example, the first optic fibre was laid in 1992, from the computer centre to the administration building via the Library. Kalpana 1500 switches were used, making UWC the first University in South Africa to use switches at a time when other Universities made use of PC routers (H. Arendse, pers. com.).

 

The first e-mail started in 1992, using Peaguses mail on Charon Gateways (H. Arendse, pers. com.). The Physics and Botany departments started the first email to academic staff when lecturers in the two departments built local area networks despite the lack of institutional support. Administrative computing was centred on expensive mainframe technology, and the initial network was developed to support access to administrative functions on the mainframe. In the early 90s, the University still had a very good systems development team, and continued to develop its own student administration system.

 

During 1991, the University started to deploy some desktop systems to academics, but until the mid 1990s, there was still a low penetration of ICT to the desktop. Indeed, this was not really solved until the decade drew to a close. By the mid 1990s, email was available in several departments, but most academics and postgraduate students were frustrated by the lack of ICT facilities, and by the lack of spending on the academic application of technology. Led by the newly formed Computing Committee of the Faculty of Science, in 1992 academics began to put pressure on the University administrative structures to make more funds available for academic computing.  Successes were limited, but what the committee achieved was to unite a group of academics who kept pressure for a voice of academics in ICT decisions. A major breakthrough was achieved in 199_ when the Information Systems Committee moved from Council, to become a joint Senate and Council committee. For the first time, the main academic body of the University had a say in the deployment and direction of ICT.

 

From around 1993 onwards, more computers became available for staff, and the network began to expand to cover more departments. The crude homebuilt coax networks in Botany and Physics were replaced with twisted pair cabling, and the optic fibre backbone was expanded. However, the mid 1990s was characterized by frequent network and email failures, and a continued limited support for academic desktops.

 

In 1995, UWC had a 64kb Internet connection for the whole campus, the main function of which was the delivery of email. With the ascendancy of the Worldwide Web in 1994-1995, users found this bandwidth to be below useful levels. However, this did not stop the Botany Department from establishing a web server, with significant content directed primarily at schools. At this time there was no Internet or Web policy, and academics fighting for the right to use the WWW were seen largely as irritations. Emphasis was on controlling access to the Internet, rather than promoting it.

 

In was in early 1995 that some academics began to make use of Internet technologies
for teaching-and-learning. A major company had sponsored the development of a small lab for undergraduate students, with 25 workstations. In 1995, these workstations were used to give students access to content on the Botany web server, but it was not until 1997 that course materials and other web content were linked together in support of classroom learning (Collins & Keats, 1998a, b, Keats 1998). In 1996, the SA Foundation for Research Development (FRD, now known as the National Research Foundation) funded the author to begin research into the potential of the Internet in improving teaching-and-learning at both school and university levels (Keats, 2002a). This was the Internet Biology Education Project, and through this project Roy Volkwyn and Jocelyn Collins developed an online biology textbook at

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed).

In 1997, Martin Cocks added the EcoTree to the BioEd project at

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed

(Cocks & Keats 1998). Part of the success of this project and indeed subsequent online teaching and learning was the graphic design capabilities that we developed as part of the BioEd project (Frans & Keats 1998). In 1999, the Internet for Environmental Education project was started as a PhD project by Yazeed Petersen (Keats et al., 2001). The resources that were created under these projects were mainly used by learners outside South Africa as there were simply very few schools and learners online in South Africa at the time (Keats et al., 2001).

 

In 1996, I established the International Ocean Institute Regional Operational Centre for Southern Africa (IOI-SA, http://www.ioinst.org/ioisa) was at UWC. With a strong interest in the application of ICT to education and environment, one of the first things we did was to establish a quasi business unit, called IOI-SA Online Services. IOI-SA Online services took over the development and management of the UWC website, as well as developing other websites for units and structures at UWC. Strangely, IOI-SA thus had a big impact on the application of Internet technology at UWC.

 

Against this backdrop were numerous meetings, workshops and consultants reports on ICT. Even the auditors recommended changes to the status quo, but there was little in the way of significant change in the ICT landscape. Even in the late 1990s, academics wanting to use the Internet for academic purposes, to transform teaching-and-learning were treated as heretics by those in control of the ICT infrastructure. However, the representation of the academic body, through senate, on the Information Systems Committee began to have its impact.

 

In 1999, I initiated the SA-ISISlearn online course in Coastal Management developed as part of the South African Integrated Spatial Information System funded by the South African Innovation Fund. Content for the course was developed by Faghrie Mitchell, with technical development by Martin Cocks and Jocelyn Collins. The website is still available at:

http://sa-isislearn.uwc.ac.za/

By then, I had already developed interactive versions of my own courses online, and was no longer giving classrooms versions.  Until 2000, the Botany Department and its International Ocean Institute, was probably the only department at UWC to embark on extensive use of the Web in teaching-and-learning at undergraduate level (Keats 2000).

 

It was these developments that made us realize that we were developing tools to do the same job over and over. We looked into commercial learning management systems, but were unsatisfied with the cost-feature situation of most packages.  Hence, we decided to put the knowledge gained from several years research into online teaching-and-learning into the development of a Learning Management System (LMS). We called this LMS the Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning, or KEWL as a play on chatroom slang.

 

The late 1990s also saw the establishment of the field of Bioinformatics at UWC, and the development of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI, see

            http://www.sanbi.org.za/

SANBI brought with it a strong cadre of open source developers. At the same time, UWC became involved in the Telkom Centres of Excellence programme, and established at Centre of Excellence in ATM and Broadband Networks and their Applications (CoE) with funding from Telkom, Siemens and THRIP (Tucker & Keats 1998). The CoE helped transform the Computer Science department, and that department began to make a significant contribution to the development of ICT on campus.

 

The Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences established the Department of Information Systems in 1997, with the assistance of the New Settlers Foundation and Old Mutual who gave an endowed chair.  The Department delivered a first year course to over 500 first years in its first year of operation, and held an international conference in its second year.  It now has over 4000 student enrolments and 40 Masters students.

 

Despite these developments, the second half of the 1990s was characterized by considerable turmoil in IT support.  The University went though a financial crisis, and in 1998 there was a series of retrenchments and voluntary severance packages. Much of the systems development capacity that had been a strength of UWC was lost in this process.

 

At the end of the 1990s, and in 2000/2001 decisions to acquire IT systems were made without consultation with knowledgeable academics, and slipped through the decision making structures. A human resource module from Integrated Tertiary Software (ITS) was purchased and implemented, but problems with that module and a lack of funds meant that further investment in ITS was halted. This period also saw the purchase of Masterpiece for financial administration, as well as numerous examples of stand-alone packages marketed directly to key decision makers, resulting in the entrenchment of the silo mentality.

 

In 1999, donor funding was secured from Thintana Communications for the construction of the first large networked student labs on campus. For the first time, we could do online teaching-and-learning in a suitably equipped laboratory. It was partly donor pressure from this large donation that led to the establishment of the Teaching-and-learning Technologies Unit (TLTU). The TLTU took over the operation of the new laboratories, and was able to build up a concentrated pool of expertise in the management and operation of student computing.  Service standards were greatly professionalized, and the TLTU was able to offer support, and indeed a management service in some cases, to labs across campus.

 

The TLTU also took note of the extremely low levels of computer literacy amongst the student community.  A survey of first year Arts students carried out in 2000, for example, revealed that less than 10% of students regarded themselves as “confident or very confident” in simple computing skills, and over 40% had never sat in front of a PC before coming to University.  First year computer courses existed only for two out of seven Faculties, who took courses in either Computer Science or Information Systems.  The TLTU has designed a simple training manual, and now ensures that all other first year students take a basic course that teaches them to word-process, e-mail and browse the internet.  Further interventions for senior students have been piloted and will be further developed over 2002 and 2003.

 

Aside from Botany, it is only Dr Pierre de Vos of the Law faculty who has made extensive use of online learning materials, having begun working with KEWL at the beginning of 2001 (de Vos, 2002). According to de Vos,

“When I decided at the beginning of last year to throw all caution to the wind and to put my course on the South African Bill of Rights on KEWL, some of my colleagues thought that I was a bit mad. It will entail so much extra work, they said, when we already know the students won’t be able to make optimal use of the benefits of the system. These colleagues were correct about the extra work, but in terms of the benefit for students, I think they were dead wrong. Not that there were (and are) no problems with getting students started on KEWL and, more importantly, getting them to use the system, but with a bit of carrot and a bit of stick I think I have managed to get quite a lot out of the system.”

(de Vos, 2002 http://www.uwc.ac.za/ics/ezine/showissue.asp?issueno=4).

 

In August of 2001, Prof Shirley Walters and her colleagues began to use ICT to offer an Intercontinental Masters in Adult Learning and Global Change. Two years in preparation, the web-based course was developed cooperatively between the four universities in Sweden, South Africa, Canada and Australia. Students enroll through the university closest them that is involved in the project. For example, students from Africa enroll at UWC. The teaching is shared by each of the eight modules being taught from the different universities (Walters, 2002).

 

The establishment of Information and Communication Services

 

In 2000, the Information Technology Services Department was the custodian of ICT within the University, and this department fell under the portfolio of Executive Director, Finance. ICT was governed by the joint Information Systems Committee of Senate and Council (RISC), chaired by the Executive Director, Finance, Graham Botha. Graham Botha understood the legacy of problems that he inherited as well as the challenges and opportunities arising out of new developments in ICTs. He knew that this needed special attention, and with the support of the members of RISC, a proposal was made to the Council of the University in 2000.

 

Council understood that developments of the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) during past 7-8 years had created numerous challenges as well as many opportunities for higher education institutions (HEI) including UWC. It  understood the challenges related to the implementation of technology in HEI, as well as the challenges arising out of the globalization of higher education that were made possible mainly through technology. Thus in 2001, Council approved the establishment of a new exectutive portfolio, entitled Information & Communication
Services. What was visionary about this was the fact that Council recognized the need for an accomplished academic to lead the new portfolio.

 

The new Executive Director, Information and Communication Services was appointed in October 2001, and charged with  “developing the University into a competitive
teaching and learning organization in the field of Higher Education by creatively applying information and communication technologies to the academic project.” As the person filling that post, I knew that ICT at UWC could not continue to grow organically, and still enable this mission to be fulfilled. The first task was thus to develop an Integrated Information Strategy. This process of strategic planning was initiated in November 2001, and the development done via an interactive website with all those who wished to do so able to participate via the website or via email. The strategy is now in place (Table 1), and is in the process of being turned in to action.

 

Table 1. Executive summary from the Integrated Information Strategy

Vision

 

Through the creative application of information and communications technology, UWC will make the right information available independently of space and time constraints, will  have creative people with the skills to construct and  use information effectively, and  will help to  promote learning in which information is  constructed into knowledge by learners. In doing so, UWC will become a leader in the creation, application and management of information in teaching-and-learning, research, community engagement and the provision of institutional leadership and management.

Goals

 

The goals of the Integrated Information Strategy arise out of the application of ICTs in three areas of the university’s core function: teaching-and-learning, research and community engagement, and are informed by the need to govern and manage the institution efficiently and effectively.

 

Ř     Provide and promote the technology to enable UWC to produce graduates who are able to use technology to find, understand, apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and report on information from a wide variety of sources and who are competitive for twenty-first century careers

Ř     Provide and promote the technology to enable UWC to strengthen its participation in the global academy of scholarship, and build a world-class research and publication profile while producing postgraduates who are internationally competitive in their fields

Ř     Wherever possible, ICT will be used to reach out and engage local, national, regional and global communities.

Ř     To help evolve the University Business processes to a state where information contributes to a seamless, integrated and comprehensive picture in support of UWC’s mission.

Ř     To ensure that service levels in for the delivery of information services are developed and maintained as a standard against which to measure and ensure performance.

Ř     To develop and maintain policies and guidelines for the effective application of information and communications technologies within the UWC campus, and to communicate them with all relevant stakeholders.

Ř     UWC’s Technological infrastructure will, at all times, be available, efficient, predictable and built upon industry best practices to provide for integrity in information through an enabling environment

Ř     Staff of ICS, who will be responsible for the UWC ICT infrastructure and support, will enjoy recognition for their achievements, will be supported to acquire and maintain multiple skills so that the can perform their responsibilities effectively and efficiently.

 

Each of these goals is underpinned by a series of detailed objectives, out of which derive an implementation plan that is still under development. Within the document, the strategy is personalized through a story about Thandi, a student at UWC in 2005.

 

 

ICT at UWC in 2002

 

This year has been an exciting one for ICT at UWC. Aside from the establishment of ICS and the development of the Integrated Information strategy, a significant number of events in the ICT calendar have happened. In May, we launched the new Centre for IP and Internet Computing, based in the Computer Science department. This Centre will be involved in innovative projects that use the TCP/IP protocol and the Internet, and will include projects that bring cutting edge technologies to bear on teaching-and-learning through the development of new tools for KEWL.

 

In June, UWC was awarded a large grant from the Carnegie Corporation.  In partnership with the other four higher education institutions in our region, we will be researching, creating and disseminating ICT applications that promote quality and equity in higher education.

 

In early July, the SANBI took delivery of a Cray SV1 supercomputer, the first research supercomputer in a university in Africa. The Cray, named Crunchie, will be used to conduct bioinformatics research, with a particular focus of genetics of diseases common to Africa. SANBI has already used its smaller midrange computers to make some significant discoveries in disease genetics, including discovery of the gene for retinitis pigmentosa.

 

During 2002, we also established the SeaweedAfrica biodiversity database project. SeaweedAfrica is a project to expand AlgaeBase, a biodiversity database of seaweed information, to include ecological, commercial and technology data from the whole of Africa. This three year project is funded by the European Union under the INCO-DEV section of the Fifth Framework Programme. UWC hosts the technology for this project, and IOI-SA is developing all the new code that is going into the project. This is the second large initiative in the new fields of Environmental Informatics at UWC, following the success of the SA Coast project (Table 2).

 

In the past 2-3 years, aside from the development of the main UWC website, several institutes, faculties and departments have established their own web servers (Table 2). UWC is now a hub of web-based academic activity, with around 20 separate servers now accessible via the Internet, as well as its own Intranet site currently under development. Despite this high level of activity, serious use of the Web is still clustered around a few departments, mainly Botany/International Ocean Institute, and student involvement is still largely at the postgraduate level.

 

Table 2. Websites at UWC in 2002.

URL

Notes

http://www.uwc.ac.za/

University web server, with most general UWC information and where Faculties, sections and departments host their web sites

http://www.science.uwc.ac.za/

Separate server run by the science faculty

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/

Separate web server run by the Botany department, and the first web server at UWC

http://www.epu.uwc.ac.za/

Educational Policy Unit at UWC

http://www.ioinst.org/

International Ocean Institute site hosted at UWC

http://www.ioinst.org/ioisa/

International Ocean Institute Regional Operational Centre for southern Africa that hosts the main IOI site (above)

http://www.ioivu.org/

The IOI Virtual University is also hosted at UWC and runs KEWL

http://www.seaweedafrica.org/

Project to expand AlgaeBase, a biodiversity database of seaweed information, to include ecological, commercial and technology data from the whole of Africa.

http://thetha.uwc.ac.za/

UWC community bulletin and notice board

http://www.lifelonglearningindaba.uwc
.ac.za/

Site to promote UWC as a lifelong learning institution

http://www.sanbi.ac.za

South African National Bioinformatics Institute, home of Crunchy, the only research supercomputer in Africa.

http://sacoast.uwc.ac.za/

A resource about the SA  coast, and contains a database of educational information, a fully interactive web-based GIS, and a large database of coastal projects.

http://planet.botany.uwc.ac.za/

Experimental web-based GIS server

http://hal.uwc.ac.za/

Using a hub of seven servers, the Hub for Advanced Learning (H.A.L) will serve large databases and multi-gigabyte-sized images in the form of Decision Support Systems and for the delivery of advanced learning resources and GIS. It is our newest project and is still being set up.

 

http://webmanforge.uwc.ac.za/

WebManager.UWC is an Open Source  website content managment system for Microsoft servers developed at UWC, used to power SeaweedAfrica, ICS, and soon the UWC websites

http://kewl.uwc.ac.za/

UWC’s online learning servers (actually a suite of four servers) running

http://kewlforge.uwc.ac.za/

Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL), UWC’s own Open Source learning management system for Microsoft servers

http://student.uwc.ac.za/

Student email, available to all students, created automatically when they register

 

This week, as we are in Ethiopia, we will be releasing version 1.0 of our learning management system KEWL. The new version contains nearly all the features of the commercial learning management systems, but is much easier than most to use. It is available for free under Open Source (GPL) license.

 

Another Open Source tool, WebManager.UWC is under development for release during late August or early September. WebManager.UWC will allow a university to manage its web content online via a tree-structured menu at which permissions can be assigned at any level. Like KEWL, Webmanager.UWC also includes numerous communication tools, including instant messaging and web-email integrated discussion forums, project management tools, an eZine, and many other tools. These tools mark UWC’s ability to give back to the higher education community around the world.

 

UWC is not only interested in the philosophy of Open Source for software development, but is also committed to a philosophy of Open Content (Keats & Shuttleworth, 2002). The idea of making content resources freely available for distribution and change is embedded into the Integrated Information Strategy, which states “Academic staff produce high quality learning content that, wherever possible, will follow the Open Content philosophy” (Keats, 2002b). Later in the year, we will be releasing some of our course content materials under Open Content Licensing.

 

Although it developed without a strategy, there are a number of significant achievements of UWC in the ICT infrastructure and support area (Table 3). These achievements and infrastructural elements provide a significant foundation from which to build the future, and really use ICT to transform teaching-and-learning.

 

Table 3. Achievements and infrastructural elements in the ICT arena from which to build our ability to transform teaching and learning in the University.

Achievement / infrastructural element

Significance

Establishment of Teaching and Learning Technologies Unit

Management of student labs, support of online learning, training of academic staff

Strengthening computer science

Research and development outputs, students help support ICT

Establishment Department of Information Systems

Academic department, research and development, business process analysis, students help support ICT processes

Optic fibre backbone covers whole campus

Network points available in all buildings except residences.

Stable email system for all staff

Communications ability

Student email
(http://student.uwc.ac.za/)

Ability to communicate with students by email, to build email into teaching and learning processes

Internet connectivity

Access to the WWW, email, ability to run websites

Web caching

Reduced load by caching locally, neighboring within the Western Cape (CHEC)

Server cluster and storage area network

Data storage and information sharing

 

Transforming teaching-and-learning

 

The transformation of teaching-and-learning through ICT at UWC is still a process that is in its infancy, hence the title of this paper.  The Integrated Information Strategy contains the blueprint for this transformation (Table 4). Most of the transformational processes that are underway are currently centred on the TLTU and KEWL. The TLTU has trained over 200 academic and administrative users on aspects of the development, management and delivery of online courses. It will continue this process for the foreseeable future, and expand its training to include more advanced uses of web-based technologies as well as sessions which will aim to make staff more effective users of desktop technologies.

 

The idea of transformation to a constructivist paradigm may be controversial among some educational philosophers, but the concept here is to move from a lecture-centred to a more student-centred, resource-based method of teaching and learning. Part of this idea is also implicit in the notion that learners will have access to a variety of resources, and will thus become independent learners. Obviously, this cannot happen without the academic staff having the skills to build constructivist courses. The training courses for staff, and the KEWL manual address this need.

 

Using technology for mentoring purposes is also something that is just in the early stages of development. For undergraduate students, learner tracking is currently under development for KEWL. The learner tracking system will enable student participation and performance to be tracked across multiple courses, and mentors and students alerted by email, web alerts, instant messaging or SMS messages to cellular phones. Items 6-13 (Table 4) are still in the stages where action plans are being formulated. UWC is recognized in South Africa for its ground-breaking work in the recognition of prior learning (RPL), and we must bring technology to bear on this are of work to enable participation in formal education by older learners who have been excluded from participation in formal higher education as a result of past injustices and present economic circumstances.

 

Table 4. Teaching-and-learning objectives of the Integrated Information Stratety.

1.     Technology will facilitate the transformation of teaching-and-learning according to a constructivist paradigm leading to active and independent learning (Information literacy).

2.     Learners will have access to information from a wide variety of sources, including print and digital media.

3.     Learners will be encouraged through technology to become independent learners.

4.     Academic staff will have the skills and technology needed to develop and manage constructivist courses that include access to and use of information and communications technology.

5.     Use technology for the mentoring of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

6.     Academic staff produce high quality learning content that, wherever possible, will follow the Open Content philosophy.

7.     Management information systems and online learning systems will be linked so that the right information is available when it is needed in the format in which it is required.

8.     Each student who graduates from UWC will be information literate according to their field and level of study.

9.     Technology will help to grow the enrollment of part-time learners, freed from geographic & time-tabling restraints, and to deliver life-long learning to distance students and alumni.

10.   Student access to computing labs will be extended to 24:7 for those labs where demand exists and it is feasible.

11.   Develop a forward-looking approach to the provision of audiovisual services in support of teaching-and-learning.

12.   Technology will be used to facilitate the recognition of prior learning.

13.   Digital library services will be integrated with learning management systems.

14.   UWC will sustain creative development of its own learning management system.

 

During late 2001, the registrar, Dr Ingrid Miller, identified a need to have a marks administration system for UWC. The South Africa – Norway Tertiary Education Development (SANTED) project was already supporting the addition of learner tracking features to KEWL, so Dr Miller proposed using KEWL for marks tracking. The various committees dealing with student enrollment and marks administration supported this idea, so the emphasis of the learner tracking was shifted to marks administration. The feature development was completed in the first semester, and full implementation is under way in the current semester. Meanwhile, development has gone back to the full learner tracking features as conceived initially in the SANTED project. What this development does mean is that now all courses at UWC will have an online component, and all students at UWC will have the capability to interact with a learning management system, even if for no other purpose than checking their marks.

 

One of the most significant impediments to the large-scale impact of ICT on teaching and learning is the fact that UWC has still not developed adequate student computing facilities. Most of our students come from socioeconomic conditions such that they encounter computers for the first time when they come to university, and are not able to purchase their own machines. 950 computers on campus are reserved for the use of our 12,000 strong student body.  Access is extremely skewed amongst different student groups, many PCs are outdated and need replacement, and only 110 of these machines are dedicated to walk-in access.  Existing labs are fully utilized, and the pressure generated by adding significant numbers of online courses would probably be beyond the existing system’s ability to cope.

 

Hence, we not only have to put in place the server tools and train academic staff for using technology in teaching and learning, we also have to create new lab facilities for students as well as attempt to create conditions that promote student ownership of computers. This is the biggest challenge that we face in if indeed we are going to use ICT to transform teaching-and-learning at UWC. To achieve these goals, we are developing a large-scale international fund-raising initiative, called the Information into Knowledge Fund. If this initiative is successful, UWC will have truly transformed teaching-and-learning through the creative application of ICT. Watch our website for the results of this dynamic process!

 

References

Cocks, M. & D.W. Keats, 1998. Pushing the limits of HTML for the development of web-based multimedia. pp. 581-587, in, Proceedings of the First Annual South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference, Cape Town

Collins, J. & D.W. Keats, 1998a. Use of network-based, high bandwidth multimedia in training at tertiary level. pp. 33-37, in Media for the New Millenium: Looking into the Future. Ed by A. le Roux, South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education, Pretoria.

Collins, J. & D.W. Keats, 1998b. Adding multimedia depth to a website on a broadband network for improved learning. pp. 575-580, in, Proceedings of the First Annual South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference, Cape Town

De Vos, P. 2002. Using Kewl as a teaching tool in the Law Faculty at UWC. ICS eZine, Issue 4, May 2002 (Downloaded on 2002 07 22 from http://www.uwc.ac.za/ics/ezine/showissue.asp?issueno=4)

Frans, R. & D.W. Keats, 1998. Graphic design for a two-layered approach to online multimedia. pp. 588-589, in, Proceedings of the First Annual South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference, Cape Town.

Keats, D.W. 1998a. Educational technology in a student-centred approach to learning: a practical example using a six-week third year module in marine botany at the University of the Western Cape. pp. 124-129, in Media for the New Millenium: Looking into the Future. Ed by A. le Roux, South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education, Pretoria.

Keats, D.W. 1998b. A layered approach to networked multimedia development: providing learning resources that are accessible to both low and high bandwidth users. pp. 567-574, in, Proceedings of the First Annual South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference, Cape Town

Keats, D.W. 2000. Lessons from three years of online learning: moving from supplemental resources to generic courseware.  Proceedings of  the South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference Stellenbosch 11-13 September 2000 (CD-ROM)

Keats, D.W. 2002a. Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL): An Open Source Learning Management System Suited for the Developing World. Technology Source, in press

Keats, D.W. 2002b. Integrated Information Strategy for the University of the Western Cape. UWC, Bellvile, South Africa. (Available online at http://www.uwc.ac.za/ics/default.asp?menuItem=Info+Strategy&Category=root).

Keats, D.W.,  J. Collins & Y.Petersen, 2001. The internet as an outreach tool: the UWC  case.  SA J. Higher Ed. 15(2): 185-193.

Keats, D.W. & M. Shuttleworth, 2002. Towards a view of knowledge as the common heritage of humanity: mapping an Open Content strategy. Book chapter for Africa.Edu, ed. By Maria Beebe, in press

McNutt, L. 1994. Developing Computer Aided Learning Resourses for Tertiary Education: A Review and Synthesis Of Current Research. CTI Annual Conference (Downloaded on 2002 07 23 from http://www.ulst.ac.uk/cticomp/mcnutt.html)

Tucker, W. & D.W. Keats, 1998. Grafting an ATM network onto an existing Ethernet network. pp. 485-494, in, Proceedings of the First Annual South African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference, Cape Town

Walters, S. 2002. UWC Uses Technology to Offer Intercontinental Masters in Adult Learning and Global Change. ICS eZine, Issue 4, May 2002 (Downloaded on 2002 07 22 from http://www.uwc.ac.za/ics/ezine/showissue.asp?issueno=4)