Jako Olivier

Commonwealth of Learning · Higher Education

This academic book focuses on scholarly research contextualising innovative learning and knowledge construction by applying active teaching–learning practices such as problem-based learning (PBL) and pedagogy of play (PoP) to enhance self-directed learning (SDL). In support of the rationale of this book, PBL and pedagogies of play (PoPs) are discus...

Initiatives such as the Open Educational Resources (OER) World Map provide a systematic means towards recording activities, documents and individuals related to open education (OE). In this article – which is part of a larger effort to evaluate and extend this World Map – the entries on Brazil and South Africa were critically evaluated in terms of...

This book explores the current state of open educational resources and open pedagogy in terms of practices and the latest in research in both Lebanon and South Africa. In seven chapters recent trends in open education are unpacked in terms of practices in these two countries. As an open publication, this book contributes to opening up access to res...

This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envi...

This report provides an overview of the nature of open universities derived from the responses from 28 open universities in the Commonwealth. The data not only provide a snapshot of the nature of open universities, but also show some evidence of the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on open universities where institutions had to move all their lea...

It is a major challenge to identify assessment instruments for group work that not only support students’ learning processes and progress but also reflect a valid and reliable result based on individual efforts. In this chapter, we discuss the use of electronic posters (e-posters) as a multimodal assessment instrument for virtual excursions. The...

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) implies the blurring of lines between digital and other spheres of life, education students should be adaptable and self-directed. This chapter explores how the needs of students within the context of the 4IR will depend on the different modalities of learning and being self-directed. Learning involves diff...

Education in Southern Africa has moved increasingly to multimodal environments as access to technology has increased and contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic have meant increased use of learning technologies. However, the unique contexts of countries in Southern Africa have meant that teachers had to adapt not only to challenging contexts in term...

This concluding chapter looks back at the chapters that explored the nature of multimodal learning environments in Southern Africa in terms of embracing digital pedagogies through ten chapters. In this context, due to wider technological advances and expansion, but also specifically due to COVID-19, learning environments are increasingly multimodal...

In order to create an enabling environment for widespread uptake of open educational resources (OERs) at a South African university, it was decided to establish an OER Fellowship Programme. This programme was designed to empower lecturers in order to adapt or create OERs for their classrooms and do research about the process. For the sake of effect...

Textbooks are essential components in the learning process. They assist in achieving educational learning outcomes and developing social and cultural values. However, limited studies provide comprehensive frameworks for comparing textbooks. Most have focused on a specific textbook perspective within a particular discipline. Therefore, this study us...

Although several studies have been conducted to summarize the progress of open educational resources (OER) in specific regions, only a limited number of studies summarize OER in Africa. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic literature review to explore trends, themes, and patterns in this emerging area of study, using content and bibliometric...

This chapter provided an overview of science education in South Africa. From a broad introduction to the country and its current economic, technological and cultural development it is evident that the country's colonial and apartheid past has made a definite impact on the wider education system. This chapter, furthermore, presented a summary of the...

This introductory chapter outlines the rest of the publication with regard to different perspectives on teacher education in the digital age. Apart from a brief contextualisation, this chapter then unpacks the nature and relationships between the chapters that follow.KeywordsTeacher educationDigital ageEducational technologye-learningBlended learni...

Technology and digitalization are ubiquitous in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An important aspect is the emergence of robotics, especially within multimodal learning contexts. In this regard, this research drew on the scholarship of robotics in terms of multimodality and online learning. This chapter focuses on practices and reflections of stud...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools to close and shift to remote education. However, this might create new challenges, as students might have poor self-directed learning skills to keep up with the learning process from home. Although many studies have focused on remote education during said pandemic, there is limited information on the strateg...

Abstract The substandard performance in mathematics learning in schools is often attributed to teachers’ lack of knowledge and inability to keep up with the most recent pedagogical approaches expected from 21st century mathematics teachers. It is widely acknowledged that teacher self-directed learning (SDL) supports metacognition that in turn holds...

It is a major challenge to identify assessment instruments for group work that not only support students’ learning processes and progress but also reflect a valid and reliable result based on individual efforts. In this chapter, we discuss the use of electronic posters (e-posters) as a multimodal assessment instrument for virtual excursions. The ch...

Virtual excursions, as an iteration of online-based learning and teaching activities, are become more popular and in this context, SDL could be regarded as an important aspect of the learning process. In this chapter, we aim to explore the overall trends and characteristics from published works on online virtual excursions in terms of SDL from the...

The needs of a changing society and the looming Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) have led to increased technology infusion into classrooms. However, this digital education is driven by commercial entities and the hegemony of English and content from the Global North. In order to ensure social justice and the sustainability of digital education in...

Despite increased interest in open education worldwide, not all institutions have seen widespread uptake of open educational resources (OERs). To address this issue, higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide have established initiatives to support the development and use of OERs. This chapter provides the context for the rest of the book by di...

Teachers of German Second Additional Language (SAL) in South Africa face a number of obstacles both with regard to teaching, and with regard to their professional development. A professional development model was designed focusing on collaborative and self-directed learning. In the design, attention was paid to overcoming the obstacles to teacher p...

This book aims to contribute to the discourse of learning through assessment within a self-directed learning environment. It adds to the scholarship of assessment and self-directed learning within a face-to-face and online learning environment. As part of the NWU Self-Directed Learning Book Series, this book is devoted to scholarship in the field o...

In this chapter, the use of language in assessments was researched regarding its role in supporting situated self-directed learning (SDL). In this regard, the construct of language was approached as one of the material resources for learning in terms of self-directed learning-oriented assessment (SLOA). Situated learning emphasises the importance o...

An increase in the use of technology in education has led to changes in the way learning takes place and content is represented. However, despite this trend and preferences for digital modes of communication and challenges encountered by students, the assessment practices in higher education have remained largely monomodal and text-based. This conc...

This book on self-directed learning (SDL) is devoted to original academic scholarship within the field of education, and is the 6th volume in the North-West University (NWU) SDL book series. In this book the authors explore how self-directed learning can be considered an imperative for education in a complex modern society. Although each chapter re...

In this chapter, online study advice regarding the shift from face-to-face to multimodal learning was investigated in terms of the requirements related to self-directed multimodal learning. This publicly posted advice comes within a broader worldwide shift to a multimodal mode of delivery because of restrictions in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic. I...

This chapter focuses on environments that support the fostering of self-directed multimodal learning (SDML). This research drew on constructionism as theoretical lens and its implementation by means of microworlds. The aim of this chapter is to determine what features of microworlds enable them to be supportive multimodal learning environments for...

Trends in research on teacher development in recent years have shown a shift away from merely studying what teachers learn to how they learn, how they improve their learning, and how they transform their skills and knowledge into practice so as to offer their own learners an improved educational experience. Although blended learning has been propos...

Learning online has grown significantly in the African context, and hence access and the nature of resources in this area have become more important. This chapter explores the context of online access and resources on the continent as contextualisation for open education and self-directed learning in Africa. This conceptual chapter provides an over...

The changing educational context and dynamic needs around increasing online learning at all education levels highlight the importance of self-directed learning. In this regard, self-directed learning, which involves both a process and student characteristic, relates to the students taking charge of their learning in terms of setting aims, choosing...

The fourth industrial revolution has brought changes in current education systems. Many academic institutions are opting for open education throughout the working lives of individuals that led to a distinctive rise in e-learning; thus, a need is identified to explore the intersections between self-directed learning, online mentoring and online coac...

A requirement for sustainable development is quality education, which – according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 – relates to education that is inclusive, equitable and promotes lifelong learning opportunities. Such aims require embracing self-directed learning, multimodality, open education and indigenous knowledge. In this c...

This chapter explores the affordances of individual language planning in terms of facilitating self-directed learning (SDL) in multilingual Information Technology (IT) classrooms at the high school level. Multilingualism is a reality within South African schools, however, not only does education in general in South Africa show evidence of the hegem...

Within a communal constructivist approach and a context of contribution-oriented pedagogy, students not only consume content they can also produce content for reuse within the educational context. To this end, teachers should create opportunities for co-creation and collaboration between students and teachers in order to construct microlearning obj...

Open education provides opportunities for the inclusion of different languages in the education context. This conceptual article approaches the concept of language rights from a sociology of language perspective where language rights can be dealt with as group or collective rights. However, in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Afri...

This book aims to provide an overview of theoretical and practical considerations in terms of self-directed multimodal learning within the university context. Multimodal learning is approached in terms of the levels of multimodality and specifically blended learning and the mixing of modes of delivery (contact and distance education). As such, this...

This chapter, as a critical literature review, examines the concept of multimodal learning with respect to its roots in the scholarship of multimodality and blended learning (BL). The levels of multimodality– that is, individual, interactional, instructional and institutional iterations – are explored within the context of self-directed learning (S...

This chapter reports on a comparative autoethnographical study comparing experiences of self-directed multimodal learning at two institutions of HE in a Southern African context. The comparison aims to explore lived experiences in the context of a long history of distance education versus the context where this approach has recently been implemente...

This chapter provides an overview of trends from academic articles and postgraduate studies related to BL, SDL and the CoI framework from 2009 to 2019 in South Africa. By means of a systematic critical review of identified articles – as located in major electronic databases – the main methodologies, contexts and findings were determined. This resea...

This chapter deals with situated and culturally appropriate self-directed multimodal learning in terms of distance education in a South African university. This approach has become relevant at this university as both contact and distance students are accommodated in the same degree programmes. In the South African university context, there is a nee...

In the context of the decolonisation of the curriculum, it is essential to incorporate student voices in order to situate learning in an appropriate milieu. To this end, this chapter explores the affordances of open educational resources (OERs) and student-centred open pedagogy as resources that can be used for teacher education. It is also suggest...

While various studies have been undertaken on the teaching and learning of German in South Africa, this article aims to fill a research gap by conducting a thorough analysis of the professional development needs of teachers of German Second Additional Language (SAL) in South Africa. The mixed-method investigation that was used involved interviews w...

This conceptual article explores self-directed localized open educational practices for a decolonized South African higher education curriculum. From the historical context, language demography and especially due to student protests regarding the curriculum the need for a decolonized South African curriculum is evident. In this article, an overview...

In this article the academic and literary genres of the writer Joan Hambidge is researched by means of a linguistic analysis in order to describe the lingual liminal space of her idiolect. To this end, two novels and a PhD thesis were used a central text. From the literature the unique voice of Hambidge is evident. The concepts of genre and liminal...

This chapter provides a framework—based on the theoretical background of self-directed multimodal demiurgic learning—that supports students to be able to act as content creators within higher education. This critical literature review shows how self-directed learning and multimodality provide affordances towards extending formal and epistemological...

Any implementation of personalized learning and teaching through big data will have implications for research ethics. This chapter considers the research ethics implications in certain key regulatory documents and the scholarship on research ethics and learning analytics. Finally, the chapter provides guidelines for use by researchers and research...

The manner in which electronic writing resources are viewed by first-year South African university students enrolled in an English for academic purposes (EAP) class is explored in this chapter. A group of multilingual students (N = 279) were requested to reflect on their electronic writing resource selection habits and experiences. Limited good pra...

A text can be defined as a piece of language use which is experienced and accepted as a communicative unit on syntactical, semantical and pragmatical foundations. What is meant by this is that any text is understandable because it has a unique linguistic (syntactic, morphological and lexical) structure; it is intelligible, seeing as it has a set me...

In the use of OERs, there is a need for SDL. This process of supporting SDL, however, requires specific literacies on the part of students. In this regard, the concept of multiliteracies provides an adequate approach through which a number of necessary skills and practices can be explored to support SDL through the use of OERs. Because of technolog...

Teaching is a value-laden profession, and certain demands regarding lifelong learning are put on teachers worldwide. Requirements for entry-level qualifications and professional development of South African teachers are stipulated in the National Qualifications Framework Act (67/2008): Revised policy on the minimum requirements for teacher educatio...

This chapter deals with the intersections of technology and IK systems within the context of facilitating SDL. An overview is provided of relevant theoretical concepts of SDL, technology and IK systems as well as an interpretation of these issues in the South African CAPS at the school level. The empirical part of this chapter involves a critical l...

This book stems from a longitudinal research project (2016–2018) that was funded by the National Research Foundation and the Fuchs Foundation, and it disseminates original research. The project researched the affordances of indigenous knowledge in the school science, technology and mathematics curricula. Short learning programmes were offered to te...

This conceptual paper aims to explore how higher education is preparing specifically the ODL student populations of Namibia and South Africa towards success in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Drawing on the main literature on the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this paper then explores existing skills but also challenges...

A need exists to facilitate social as well as communal constructivism while fostering self-directed learning in language classrooms at university level. In this regard, videos can be used as a means to motivate students to critically interact with content and to engage collaboratively with new technologies. Furthermore, it is important to consider...

Writing involves a number of skills and being self-directed in the process would contribute to greater effectivity. The concept of autonomography, or being self-directed in terms of writing, draws from the literature on self-directed learning and specifically self-directed writing, where concepts such as self-regulation and learner autonomy are rel...

This article explores the possibilities provided by self-directed learning by means of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Afrikaans literature teaching. The National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement provides a basis on which self-directedness can be motivated and the use of technology such as OER be supported. From the scholarship on lit...

In hierdie navorsing is die stand van oop opvoedkundige hulpbronne vir Afrikaansonderrig ondersoek. Oop opvoedkundige hulpbronne verwys na materiaal vir onderrig, leer en navorsing wat in die openbaar met bepaalde lisensies gratis beskikbaar is. Hierdie verskynsel moet benader word in die konteks van oop onderwys, oopbronsagteware en oop inhoud. Di...

Multiliteracies can support student open access and communal success in the context of multimodaling and multilanguaging and ultimately in the process foster self-directed learning. From academic literature the concerns regarding literacy levels are clear and the overemphasis on reading and writing (versus other skills) is evident. Furthermore, the...

This paper reports on autoethnographical reflections (Ellis, 2008; Ellis et al., 2010) of the simultaneous implementation of an Afrikaans language module through face-to-face and online modalities. In this context two separate groups of students need to cover the same outcomes, assessments and content despite having distinctly different contexts....

Supervising a PhD student is a long-term academic commitment, both for the PhD promoter and for the PhD student (Watts, 2008). Should the PhD student also be employed on a full-time basis as an academic, both student and promoter are highly likely to meet time constraints (Watts, 2008). The different power relationships as colleagues, but also as p...

Gedurende die afgelope twee dekades het Carstens se raamwerk van Afrikaanse konjunksiemerkers die standaardindeling geword waaraan konjunksiemerkergebruik gemeet is. Sy kompromisindeling kan as baanbrekerswerk beskou word in dié sin dat Halliday en Hasan (1976) se vier hoofkategorieë konjunksiemerkers met subkategorieë van ander navorsers se indeli...

This paper reports on how electronic writing resources are viewed by South African first-year university students in an EAP classroom. In terms of self-directed learning Knowles (1975:18) notes the importance of identifying "material resources for learning". The prominence of self-directed learning in second or additional language acquisition in ge...

In order to facilitate learning within a community, as is suggested within communal constructivism (Holmes et al., 2001), the use of videos can provide opportunities for students to become engaged in their own learning and those of others. To this end, the use of a bring-your-own-device strategy was followed in this research to enable student teach...

Online knowledge communities can affect the status of languages within the internet linguistic landscape. Despite the prominence of English in the online environment, multilingualism is increasingly being promoted in these environments. It is against this background that the status, presentation and representation of African languages are being inv...

Imitated Black Afrikaans: context and perceptions of the alternative use of Black Afrikaans Black Afrikaans is a dialectic non-mother-tongue variety of Afrikaans (De Wet 1993:171, 1996:7; Du Plessis 1987:24–5), Imitated Black Afrikaans is used when Afrikaans mother-tongue speakers imitate Black Afrikaans, among one another. This is different from...

Writing is key to assessment in university contexts and hence students need to be empowered to effectively function in subject-specific writing environments. In this regard, it is important that students take charge of their own writing development. Hence, the concept of self-direct writing is relevant in this context. The aim of this article is to...

Increasingly blended learning, as a combination of face-to-face and online instruction is applied in university classrooms. In this study the use of an interactive learning environment (ILE), within a Sakai-based learning management system, as well as face-to-face teaching and learning in a first-year Afrikaans language class is explored. The Techn...

Writing apprehension relates to a reluctance to write or even fear of writing and little research has been done on this phenomenon in the South African context, especially in terms of compulsory academic literacy and academic linguistic modules. This article aimed at determining the nature of writing apprehension in these two modules in terms of th...

(Original title: Vervlegte interaksie: Implementering van ’n bring-jou-eie-toestel-benadering teenoor verskafde tabletrekenaars) Effective interaction in classes and real-time feedback are challenges that may occur in any classroom. In this regard, mobile technologies may act as a supplement in a so-called blended context. This article investigate...

This paper reports on the nature of self-directed writing among student-teachers. To this end, mixed-method research was undertaken by means of writing autobiographies supplemented with questionnaires. As these students are at the end of their university training and are about to become teachers, who will be required to write effectively in their p...

Die Digitale Bibliografie van die Afrikaanse Taalkunde (DBAT) is ʼn omvattende databasis van Afrikaanse taalkundebronne. Meer as 16 000 bronne is hierop gekatalogiseer, en ongeveer 9 500 bronne se voltekste is beskikbaar. Verder word daar vir ongeveer 1 500 bronne skakels na volteks aangebied. Uit ʼn ondersoek na die gebruikerspatrone van die DBAT, w...

Die Digitale Bibliografie van die Afrikaanse Taalkunde (DBAT) is 'n omvattende databasis van Afrikaanse taalkundebronne. Meer as 17 000 bronne is hierop gekatalogiseer, en die voltekste van ongeveer 9 500 bronne is beskikbaar. Verder word daar vir ongeveer 1 500 bronne skakels na die volteks aangebied. Uit 'n ondersoek na die gebruikerspatrone van...

In a shift towards blended learning in higher education, in this instance a combination of face-to-face and online instruction (Graham, 2006:4; Holmes & Gardner, 2006:10, 14, 110; Littlejohn & Pegler, 2007:1, 26, 226), some form of structure of the learning experience is required. To this end and also to aid in supporting student learning, an inter...

This article explores Swartafrikaans and Tsotsitaal as alternative non-standard codes of Afrikaans in two poems. The concept of standardised Afrikaans is well documented in the subject literature, but proves problematic in a context where language borders are dynamic. To this end the concept of translanguaging is useful to represent the negotiation...

Blended learning, as a combination of face-to-face and online instruction (Graham, 2006:4; Holmes & Gardner, 2006:10, 14, 110; Littlejohn & Pegler, 2007:1, 26, 226) is increasingly applied in university classrooms. This paper explores the use of an interactive learning environment, within a Sakai based content management system, as well as face-to-...

Writing is integral to assessment in higher education and it is clear that helping with writing could improve overall academic performance (Archer, 2008:248). However, according to Piller (2013), as part of academic life, many students tend to procrastinate and have a great sense of self-doubt when it comes to academic writing. Daly (1978:10) descr...

The Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University (NWU) is historically associated with Afrikaans, but English is currently being used as medium of instruction for honours programmes on this particular campus of this trilingual university. As such the NWU acknowledges Afrikaans, English and Setswana as working languages in its language policy. The...

Parallels can be drawn between the acquisition of academic discourses and second languages. After enrolling in a sign language course, we – lecturers teaching academic discourses – decided to explore this phenomenon and determine the implications for pedagogical practice. Themes and codes were identified through qualitative analysis of reflection j...

This article reports on the use of Wiktionary, an open source online dictionary, as well as generic wiki pages within a university’s e-learning environment as teaching and learning resources in an Afrikaans sociolinguistics module. In a communal constructivist manner students learnt, but also constructed learning content. From the qualitative resea...