Presentation
A post-merger strategy to grow e-learning practice at a multi-campus university of technology
Marí Peté, Durban Institute of Technology
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| Slideshow with narration (64 slides) |
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| Ed Media 2004 Mari Pete |
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| Ed Media paper (9 pages) |
The Durban Institute of Technology is the first of South Africa's newly merged higher education institutions. The paper describes some of the complexities and diversities of the new institution, and positions web-based learning as a prominent strategy to enable access, flexibility, interactivity and active learning.
The first part draws on a report done for the distance education task team of the Council on Higher Education in 2003. The author presents multiple views of curriculum developers, educational technologists and academics of DIT, who argue that developments in ICTs for educational delivery, coupled with the direction given in the White Paper and National Plan, have shifted the "contact" vs "distance" debate to one of access, equity and educational viability for all learners.
Next follows an outline of DIT's approach to the institution-wide implementation of web-based learning, through fostering a multi-disciplinary community of practice to counteract fragmentation and facilitate cohesion and create a place of belonging for academic innovators from different faculties and departments during a time of literal and philosophical deconstruction and reconstruction. The author details some of the principles of a community of practice approach, reflecting on some results, lecturer feedback and lessons learnt.
The author weighs up the pros and cons of a project-based approach, and being nested within many overlapping projects of the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED), as a way of anchoring e-learning practice.
A description follows of the scope and purpose of ICT Ed, the division of CHED that offers a range of services, of which e-learning development and support is positioned on the high-end of the ICT spectrum.
Mind maps and diagrams are used to illustrate various aspects and components of the ever-evolving community of practice, and to illustrate how staff development must be balanced with institutional roll-out, to impact on the curriculum.