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The role of ICTs in higher education in South Africa:
one strategy for addressing teaching and learning
challenges
Shaheeda Jaffer Dick Ng’ambi Laura Czerniewicz
University of Cape Town University of Cape Town University of Cape Town
sjaffer@ched.uct.ac.za lcz@ched.uct.ac.za dngambi@ched.uct.ac.za
Abstract
Many choices for using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education are based on
technological possibilities rather than educationally needs. In developing countries where higher education is
fraught with several challenges, there is increasing pressure to ensure that technological possibilities are viewed
in the context of educational needs. This paper argues that in South Africa, a central role of educational
technology is to provide additional strategies which can be used to address the serious academic challenges
faced by educators and students in higher education. Higher education is faced with numerous challenges:
general, educational and specifically to do with teaching and learning. The latter challenges include lack of
academic preparedness, multilingual needs in first language settings, large classes and inadequate curriculum
design. Using case studies from one higher educational institution, this paper shows how specific and carefully
considered interventions using ICTs can be used to address these teaching and learning concerns. This paper
demonstrates by means of examples of curriculum projects at one higher education institution how educational
needs shape educational technology enhanced curriculum interventions. The paper concludes that educational
technology interventions should be based on educational needs as opposed to technological concerns.
Keywords
Educational challenges, Higher education, Educational technology, Student diversity
Introduction
It has been suggested that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can and do play a number of
roles in education. These include providing a catalyst for rethinking teaching practice (Flecknoe, 2002;
McCormick and Scrimshaw, 2001); developing the kind of graduates and citizens required in an information
society (Department of Education, 2001); improving educational outcomes (especially pass rates) and enhancing
and improving the quality of teaching and learning (Wagner, 2001; Garrison & Anderson, 2003).
While all of these suggest potential impact of ICTs in education in general and South Africa in particular
demonstrating the potential of technologies in addressing specific teaching and learning problems faced by
South African higher education institutions remains a challenge. The thesis of this paper is that the potential of
ICTs is sandwiched between increasing pressure on higher education institutions from government to meet the
social transformation and skills needs of South Africa, and the varying student academic preparedness, large
class sizes and multilingualism currently experienced in these teaching and learning contexts. Our thinking
aligns with others (such as Kirkup & Kirkwood, 2005; Wagner, 2001) who argue that it is the contextualised
teaching and learning needs which ought to drive the ICT intervention, rather than the technology itself. In
South Africa contextualisation of teaching and learning requires a tight walk between higher education
imperatives and social-cultural context of the educational landscape. This paper illustrates by means of
examples drawn from one higher education institution how educational needs drive design of learning
environments and technological use.
The paper sets out with a question, In what ways do educational technology interventions address the teaching
and learning challenges faced by South African higher education institutions? Thus, the paper is structured as
follows: the challenges facing higher education in South Africa in general are discussed followed with a
discussion on specific teaching and learning challenges; an ICT intervention framework is described; examples
from curriculum projects are discussed, followed by a conclusion.
Challenges facing higher education in South Africa
General challenges
Currently higher education in South Africa is under increasing pressure to meet the social transformation and
skills needs of the new South Africa (Kistan, 2002). At the same time it is under immense external and internal
pressure to improve on its policy and delivery performance (De Clercq, 2002). One of the indicators of social
transformation in education is increasing the demographic representation among graduates and reducing the
demographic difference between student intake and graduate throughput. The National Higher Education Plan
(2001) outlines the role of higher education institutions in the new South Africa:
The key challenges facing the South African higher education system remain as outlined in the White Paper:
“to redress past inequalities and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order, to meet
pressing national needs, and to respond to new realities and opportunities” (White Paper: 1.1). (Department
of Education South Africa, 2001)
Furthermore, recent government policy has added pressure on higher education institutions by linking funding to
throughput. In other words, unlike in the past when institutions were funded on the number of registered first
year students, funding is now linked to graduate throughput.
Improving efficiency and addressing the equity needs of the country raises conflicting challenges for higher
education institutions (Scott, 2004: 1). These challenges are exacerbated by the fact that most students enter
university under-prepared and therefore require more support to bridge the gaps in the required knowledge and
skills (Paras, 2001). Furthermore, in 2005 quality assurance audits
1
focusing on the institutional management of
core functions of teaching and learning, research and community engagement were conducted at South African
higher education institutions. The challenge for higher education institutions is therefore not only about
increasing throughput in terms of numbers and the diversity of its student population but also involves ensuring
quality educational provision.
The South African government has identified the use of ICTs for teaching and learning as an important priority.
For example, the e-Education policy states:
Every South African manager, teacher and learner in the general and further education and training bands
will be ICT capable (that is, use ICTs confidently and creatively to help develop the skills and knowledge
they need as lifelong learners to achieve personal goals and to be full participants in the global community)
by 2013. (Department of Education South Africa, 2004: p. 17)
Thus, the ultimate goal of the policy is the realisation of ICT capable managers, educators and learners by 2013.
Read together with the National Higher Education Plan, these two policies have ramifications for instructional
designers, educators, students and researchers. The underlying argument of this paper is that the realisation of
the policy’s goals largely depends on the extent to which current educational challenges are re-conceptualised in
the context of the role that ICT can play in teaching and learning. The current focus on teaching and learning
coupled with growth in educational technology in South African higher education institutions (Czerniewicz et
al, 2005: 61) requires that we begin to ask questions about the ways in which educational technology contributes
to addressing the educational challenges in the new South Africa.
Educational challenges in South African higher education
As is higher education globally, South African higher education is under pressure to increase participation from
diverse groups of students and to produce the skills required for a rapidly changing society. In the UK, for
example, participation in higher education has increased since the 1940s but participation of higher socio-
economic groups still exceeds that of lower socio-economic groups (DFES report, 2004). While similar, these
challenges take particular forms given South Africa’s unique history. For example, global disparities are defined
in terms of class; in South Africa the educational disparities are manifested along racial lines due to the political,
economic and social policies of the pre-1994 era. Redress of marginalised groups and social transformation is
therefore central to the policies of post-1994. The South African government has made it clear that one of its
aims is to achieve equitable access to higher education for previously disadvantaged learners, with diverse
educational backgrounds (Hardman & Ng’ambi, 2003). Education is viewed as one of the key mechanisms of
achieving social transformation.
1
The rationale of the quality assurance exercise as De Clercq (2002) points out, “…is that the more employees
are forced to focus on their planning and performance indicators, the better they will perform and the more
knowledgeable they system will be about developmental support systems needed” (p. 96).
It is in this educational context that new opportunities for educational technology have arisen. Although we are
aware that educational challenges demand multi-pronged approaches which may include both traditional
teaching approaches and innovative non- digital instructional designs, it is the role of educational technology
that is the focus of this paper.
Specific teaching and learning challenges
The major teaching and learning challenges facing higher education revolve around student diversity which
includes amongst others diversity in students’ academic preparedness, language and schooling background.
Teaching and learning in higher education in general can largely be characterised as follows:
[…] instruction that is too didactic, a lack of personal contact between teachers and students and among
students, assessment methods that are inadequate to measure sophisticated learning goals and too little
opportunity for students to integrate knowledge from different fields and apply what they learn to the
solution of real-world problems. (Knapper, 2001: 94)
Teaching and learning in South African higher education fits the above description but in addition it has to
contend with deep-rooted complex issues and problems stemming primarily from a previously racially divided
and unequal education system. In addition, large classes are an endemic feature of most university courses
posing an additional challenge in the teaching of diverse student population.
South African higher education institutions are faced with a myriad of teaching and learning challenges. In this
paper we focus on a few of these: academic preparedness, multilingulism in a first language context, large
classes and inadequate curriculum design. In the next section, we look at ways in which ICTs have been used to
respond to these challenges at one South African higher education institution.
Academic preparedness
Students from disadvantaged educational backgrounds as well students from privileged backgrounds generally
enter higher education with gaps in the knowledge and skills required for studying particularly in key areas such
as mathematics (Paras, 2001, Howie & Pietersen, 2001) and science.
Given the pressure to increase the diversity of the student population of South African higher education,
assessing students’ potential for success in higher education has gained increasing importance particularly since
the school-leaving certificate is currently viewed as an inadequate measure of a student’s potential for success in
higher education.
In a country such as South Africa, for instance, school-leaving certification has had a particularly unreliable
relationship with higher education academic performance especially in cases where this certification
intersects with factors such as mother tongue versus medium-of instruction differences, inadequate school
backgrounds and demographic variables such as race and socio-economic status (Yeld, 2001; Badha, et al,
1986; Scochet, 1986; and Potter and Jamotte, 1985). (Cliff et al., 2003)
Alternative placement tests have therefore been used in conjunction with school-leaving certificates to admit
students with potential into higher education studies (Cliff et al., 2003). Consequently many of these students
may be under-prepared in that they may not possess the necessary language or mathematical proficiencies
required for higher education or may have gaps in the foundational disciplinary knowledge. Furthermore
university tasks present challenges for under prepared students (Hardman & Ng’ambi, 2003). Although support
programmes to address academic under-preparedness of students from both advantaged as well as disadvantaged
groups are offered at many South African higher education institutions, they are resource intensive. Additional
resources and expertise offered by educational technology are therefore worth paying attention to.
Multilingualism in a first language environment
South Africa is a multilingual society with 11 official languages. This diversity is reflected in the student
population of South African higher education institutions. A recent study by Czerniewicz and Brown (2005) on
higher education students’ and academic staff’s access to and use of computers in five South African
universities found that 39% of respondents spoke English as a home language and 54% spoke other languages.
At the University of Cape Town, on average 65% of the student population declared English as their first
language while 35% have home languages in the other South African official languages and other international
languages (Spiegel et al.,2003).
English is therefore a second or foreign language for many South African higher education students. In most
black South African schools, English as a subject is taught as a second language. Higher education students
from disadvantaged educational backgrounds therefore have to learn in their second or third language. A
considerable body of research (Cummins, 1996; Gee, 1990) has shown that language and academic success are
closely related and that academic language proficiency is far more difficult to acquire in a second language.
Students learning in their second or third language are therefore at a disadvantage which is compounded by poor
schooling background.
The relationship between language and academic success is reflected in the throughput rates of English second
language students when compared to the throughput rates of English first language students. At the University
of Cape Town, for example, the difference in throughput rates between English first language and second
language students in 2002 was more than 20% in several degrees/programmes (Spiegel et al., 2003).
Large classes
The growth of mass higher education has made large classes an endemic feature of several courses at higher
education institutions. Large class sizes make it difficult for teachers to employ interactive teaching strategies
(Nicol & Boyle, 2003) or to gain insight into the difficulties experienced by students. Large classes pose
problems for all students but students who are under-prepared are particularly affected. It is these contexts that
provide useful opportunities for educational technologies.
Curriculum design
Curriculum design is a relatively under–engaged area within higher education debate, policy formulation and
practices (Barnett & Coate, 2005). Pressure to transform curricula at a macro-level to the needs of industry and
the economy in South Africa is reflected in the National commission on higher education’s policy framework
(1996) for higher education transformation.
There is a strong inclination towards closed-system disciplinary approaches and programmes that has led to
inadequately contextualised teaching and research. The content of the knowledge produced and disseminated
is insufficiently responsive to the problems and needs of the African continent, the southern African region,
or the vast numbers of poor and rural people in our society.
In response to policy intentions, South African higher education has implemented a curriculum restructuring
policy aimed at the development of inter- or multidisciplinary degree programmes (Moore, 2003). While policy
has resulted in curriculum shifts on a macro level, curricula contents at a micro-level are driven by disciplinary
specialists. Undergraduate curricula remain predominantly theoretical but require that students have some
knowledge of the contexts to make sense of theory.
In this paper, we are concerned with the way in which ICTs can play a role in shaping curriculum design at the
micro-level. ICTs open up new ways of accessing information thereby changing the relationships between
students and between students and their teachers. Access to primary sources in the form of video, audio and
photographs which may be contained in digital archives have the potential to influence the content of curricula
because it makes previously inaccessible information available. In addition, ICTs enable lecturers to transform
their teaching practices by facilitating student-student discussion and collaboration or by simulating ‘real-world’
problems thus providing students with authentic learning experiences.
In this section, we discussed some of the teaching and learning challenges experienced by educators and
students in higher education. In the next section, we examine the role of educational technology in responding to
these challenges and provide some examples.
Responding to the challenges
Since the teaching and learning challenges are multi-faceted, multi-pronged approaches are needed in order to
attempt to solve some of these problems. Dede (1998) postulates,
[…] information technology is a cost-effective investment only in the context of a systemic reform. Unless
other simultaneous innovations in pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and school organization are coupled to
the usage of instructional technology, the time and effort expended on implementing these devices produces
few improvements in educational outcomes – and reinforces many educators’ cynicism about fads based on
magical machines.
We infer from Dede that there are several inter-related factors that influence improvements in educational
outcomes. Thus together pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and organization contribute to bringing about
improvements in the educational process.
Although educational technology is not the panacea for educational challenges, it does leverage and extend
traditional teaching and learning activities in certain circumstances and hence has the potential to impact on
learning outcomes. Knapper (2001) argues that:
[…] technology may be a good solution for some instructional problems, and in some cases it may be a
partial solution. But in other instances technology does little to address the fundamental teaching and
learning issue or – even worse – provides a glitzy but inappropriate solution to a problem that has simply
been misconstrued. (Knapper, 2001: 94)
The trick lies in identifying situations where educational technology will be appropriate and identifying when
and how to use educational technology in these situations. There are times where technology may not be useful
and may indeed be counter-productive. However, there are many times when educational technology offers a
solution for problems which would be difficult, cumbersome or impossible to resolve in a face-to-face
environment.
Numerous manuals, websites and articles have been devoted to suggesting, explaining and modelling the ways
that educational technology can be used to support teaching and learning
2
. We agree with Laurillard (2001) that
it is important that educational technology based resources be appropriately matched to both teaching and
learning activities. Table 1 adapted from Laurillard (2001) usefully explains how educational technology can be
integrated into the curriculum.
Table 1: Teaching and learning events and associated media forms.
Teaching &
Learning Event
Teaching action
or strategy
Learning action or
experience
Related media form Examples of non-
computer based
activity
Example of computer
based activity
Acquisition
Show,
demonstrate,
describe,
explain
Attending,
apprehending,
listening
Narrative
Linear presentational.
Usually same “text”
acquired
simultaneously by
many people
TV, video, film,
lectures, books,
other print
publications
Lecture notes online,
streaming videos of
lectures, DVD,
Multimedia including
digital video, audio
clips and animations
Discovery
Create or set up
or find or guide
through discovery
spaces and
resources
Investigating,
exploring,
browsing, searching
Interactive
Non-linear
presentational.
Searchable, filterable
etc
but no feedback
Libraries, galleries,
museums
CD based, DVD, or
Web resources
including hypertext,
enhanced hypermedia,
multimedia resources.
Also information
gateways.
Dialogue
Set up, frame,
moderate, lead,
facilitate
discussions
Discussing,
collaborating,
reflecting, arguing,
analysing, sharing
Communicative
Conversation with
other students, lecturer
or self
Seminar, tutorials,
conferences
Email, discussion
forums, blogs
Practice
Model Experimenting,
practising,
repeating,
feedback
Adaptive
Feedback, learner
control
Laboratory, field
trip, simulation, role
play
Drill and practice,
tutorial programmes,
simulations, virtual
environments
Creation
Facilitating Articulating,
experimenting,
making,
synthesising
Productive
Learner control
Essay, object,
animation, model
Simple existing tools,
as well as especially
created programmable
software
Czerniewicz and Brown (2005) adapted from Laurillard (2002)
Laurillard’s guidelines are useful in that it provides a framework which relates ICT-based resources to particular
teaching and learning activities. The guidelines therefore suggest particular uses of ICT for particular teaching
2
O’Hagan (1999) suggests that educational technology can be used to present and provide content, assess students learning,
provide feedback, scaffold student learning and enable peer-to-peer collaborative learning.
and learning situations. The effectiveness of ICTs for teaching and learning, however, is largely dependent on
how much the context is understood. Thus, there is a need to relate educational technology to actual challenges
experienced by both students and lecturers in the South African educational context.
The choice of appropriate teaching and learning activities is dependent on a range of factors such as the
curriculum or course objectives i.e. the purpose of the teaching and learning, the educator’s preferred teaching
approach, the learning styles of the student and the nature of the curriculum content. Although we advocate that
teachers should use the teaching approach that suits their paradigm of teaching and learning, we believe that the
use of educational technology provides teachers with opportunities for traversing an entire continuum of
possibilities as may be appropriate to their teaching needs. Educational technology creates affordances for a
range of different teaching and learning activities which the teacher may not have used or considered.
Responding to the challenges: examples from curriculum projects
The affordances of educational technologies provide ways of being sensitive to wide-ranging and differing
learning needs. In this section, we describe some curriculum projects that have attempted to respond to some of
the educational challenges faced by students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). For the sake of brevity only
overviews are provided.
Using interactive spreadsheets to develop mathematical literacy skills
As discussed above, many under-prepared with potential students entering university do not possess the relevant
mathematical literacy skills required for certain courses (Frith et al., 2004). These students are often expected to
pursue an extended undergraduate degree programme which offers additional support to address mathematical
literacy skills. In this case, the teaching challenge is that of finding ways of developing students’ mathematical
literacy skills. Self-contained interactive spreadsheet-based tutorials were developed for use on the
mathematical literacy support courses at UCT and were used in conjunction with face-to-face lectures. A typical
tutorial consisted of interactive presentation of relevant mathematics content, examples and exercises. Students
were able to work at their own pace and receive immediate feedback. Frith et al. (2004: 163) found that ‘while
the lecture room tutorial taught students how to calculate the various statistics, the computer tutorial was more
effective in giving them an understanding of the concepts and they retained better what they had learned.’ This
effect they argue is possible due to the shift in emphasis in the computer-based tutorials away from mechanical
calculations to demonstrating conceptual understanding. This curriculum project illustrates how educational
technology was used to complement teaching and learning and to support the development of students’
mathematical literacy skills.
Using educational technology to develop academic literacy in an economics course
Economics at university level poses particular difficulties for students since lecturers assume prior knowledge of
the economy which students often have limited or no knowledge of. Under-prepared first year students
encounter further difficulties due to a lack of academic literacy skills. The Industry Research Project (Carr et al.,
2002) was designed to address economic literacy while simultaneously dealing with language and
communication skills of UCT economic students. Interactive excel spreadsheets in conjunction with short
writing tasks in the form of online discussions, short essays, reports and presentations were used on academic
development economics courses at UCT. These tasks or activities provided a range of opportunities for students
to develop understanding of economic discourses through writing in economics. Although Carr et al. (2002: 5)
found it difficult to measure the impact of these tutorials which formed a small part of the first year economics
curriculum, they observed that the interactive spreadsheets were effective teaching tools in that tutors were able
to focus students’ attention on economics issues rather than procedural issues and that the quality of articles
produced by students improved due to the online feedback provided during the process of drafting articles
online. This curriculum project demonstrates the use of educational technology in conjunction with face-to-face
activities in addressing students’ academic literacy skills.
Using educational technology to manage tutorials in large classes
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) based tutorials system called MOVES were developed around Excel and
Word to teach computer literacy to first year Information System students at UCT. MOVES incorporated
computer-assisted marking techniques and provided feedback to lecturers and students. The significance of this
project is that it typifies the problems of teaching a large and diverse class.
The computer literacy levels of these students are diverse, with some students not having touched a computer
before to students who have had home computer and internet facilities since the age of 5. The immediate
challenge this diversity poses on teaching is that it is not practical to pitch the lecture at an appropriate level
to meet all students at their level of knowledge. The other challenge is in providing feedback messages that
are relevant and useful to individual students. (Ng’ambi and Seymour, 2004: 255).
Ng’ambi and Seymour (2004: 257) report that the MOVES tutorials saved time for tutors since tutorials were
marked and results captured electronically, lecturers had access to student performance and students found the
immediate feedback useful in that misconceptions could be dealt with immediately. The significance of this
project is that it illustrates how educational technology is used to facilitate teaching and learning in large classes.
Influencing curriculum design
Many university courses are theory driven and assume that students have knowledge or real world experience
and can therefore make the links between theory and practice. Students often have limited experience or
practical knowledge and therefore have difficulty in understanding theory. Deacon et al. (2005) report on the use
of educational technology to simulate film editing. The Director’s Cut was produced and used in a Film and
Media course at UCT to provide students with insights into the practical processes involved in filmmaking
without engaging in the actual process of editing. Exposing students to actual editing is expensive and
impractical in a large course. The intervention provided individual students with an authentic learning
environment through a simulation. Students sequenced film clips, hence simulating the role of an editor through
a simplified version of the editing process. In this way, the focus is on key learning aspects of film narrative and
spectatorship and linked theory to the ‘practice’ of film editing.
Similarly Carr et al. (2004) report on an International Trade bargaining project developed for an economics
course where students assumed the role of national trade negotiators representing countries of their choice.
Lecturers and tutors assumed the role of World Trade Organisation (WTO) officials hence teaching students
negotiation and bargaining skills required by professional economists using a semi-authentic environment.
The two projects reported here exemplify ways in which educational technology was used to impact on the
design of the respective curricula by providing students with experiences which are difficult to provide in face-
to-face environments.
Conclusion
The paper has shown the dichotomy between increasing pressure on higher education institutions from
government to meet the social transformation and skills needs of South Africa, and challenges such as varying
student academic preparedness, large class sizes and multilingualism currently experienced in these teaching
and learning contexts. The confluence of these realities is new opportunities and challenges for educational
technology. The opportunities lie in the fact that educational technology is becoming an indispensable
complementary teaching and learning tool. The challenges lie in identifying and conceptualising ways that
educational technology can usefully contribute to student learning experiences, curriculum and pedagogical
designs to mention but three. In this paper, case studies from one higher education institution were used to
illustrate how educational technology interventions are used to address some teaching and learning challenges.
The paper demonstrates and argues that in South Africa, educational technology has a key role to play in higher
education as one of the strategies for addressing teaching and learning concerns and challenges learning
designers to rethink the role of educational technology. The paper stresses however that educational technology
interventions should be shaped by educational needs as opposed to technological concerns.
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