Mari Van Wyk

University of Pretoria | UP · Comprehensive Online Education Services

The widespread integration of digital technology in education, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a shift in student preferences toward online learning. This poses a significant challenge for teachers to maintain student motivation and engagement in traditional classroom settings without risking a decline due to the ingrained reliance...

Misinterpretation or ignorance of institutional policies in higher education can lead to inconsistencies and legal risks, particularly concerning assessments. In response, we introduced an innovative approach to engage faculty and administrative staff in understanding the institution's policies related to assessments. We implemented a Ludic pedagog...

Aim/Purpose: The current study explored how Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) influences teachers’ delivery of subject content. Background: The potential value of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) devices is lost if teachers do not integrate them into their instructional practices. Technological Pedagogical Knowledge is one of the componen...

Background Globally, artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding in healthcare and public health and AI education for students in these fields will be essential. It is therefore important that future public health professionals are aware of opportunities and challenges linked to AI. Aim The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions and attitud...

Literature indicates that low retention rates are evident in online modules and programmes. However, a much higher student retention rate than anticipated was observed in two fully online programmes at two South African universities. To explore this retention phenomena, a non-experimental quantitative study was done. The study uses descriptive stat...

The use of digital technologies in the classroom has escalated, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although technology and teacher development centres are available for teachers to use, they are often not optimally utilised. This study used explorative qualitative case study methodologies to understand Grade 9 teachers’ use of digital technol...

During the pandemic, the pivot to emergency remote teaching highlighted the depth and extent of inequalities, particularly in relation to access to resources and literacies, faced by higher education institutions. Imported solutions that failed to take into consideration the constraints and cultures of local contexts were less than successful. The...

In an integrated, dynamic and ever changing world, it is imperative that students are able to transition between jobs irrespective of qualifications. Studies show that graduates are inadequately prepared for the working world. In an attempt to address this need a postgraduate certificate course was redesigned to follow a constructionist approach in...

In spite of reported benefits of mobile devices, educational institutions criticise the use of mobile devices for learning because they are considered a distraction in class. Furthermore, researchers claim that the apparent mechanistic use of videos in classes does not contribute to deeper learning. To explore the affordances of videos and the poss...

Note-taking is one of the more common and ever-present learning activities that form an important part of all students’ daily lives. The potential of using technology to enhance note-taking activities has recently come under the spotlight. However, while mobile technologies may be applauded for their mobility and the value they can add to students’...

A major problem in higher education in South Africa is the low success rate and high dropout rate of undergraduate students. The high dropout rate could be the result of socio-economic factors, academic shortcomings or merely the fact that the current way of teaching does not meet the needs of the 21st century student. In this literature review pap...

Millennials are known to spend multiple hours watching videos on their digital devices in the form of movies and series, but whilst there are many educational videos available online, it is not yet clear whether, and how, they use these videos for educational purposes. In this research, the focus is not only on how existing videos are used in the t...

Academics often develop software for teaching and learning purposes with the best of intentions, only to be disappointed by the low acceptance rate of the software by their students once it is implemented. In this study, the focus is on software that was designed to enable veterinary students to record their clinical skills. A pilot of the software...

Although the popularity of the Internet, YouTube and mobile devices in the daily lives of students has increased over the past decade or so, this trend is not always reflected in stu-dents’ educational contexts. Mobile devices, when introduced in teaching and learning, are often only used in a haphazard way that does not necessarily contribute to a...

In higher education, learning management systems (LMS) are widely accepted and used as teaching strategies and tools. However, the question that arises is which principles are adhered to when LMSs are used to contribute positively to enhanced quality in teaching and learning. This paper explores the application of the identified principles used to...