Contemporary Learning Hub

Introduction

In the current landscape of South African higher education, moving beyond traditional, lecture-based instruction toward active, transformative pedagogy remains a pivotal priority for student success and academic development. This transformation has become urgent with the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence into education, which fundamentally challenges the efficacy of traditional "stand-and-deliver" teaching methods.

When generative AI can instantly replicate and summarise lecture content, the dominant model of passive knowledge reception becomes obsolete. Research indicates that undergraduate students in traditional lecture-based classes are 1.5 times as likely to fail as those in active-learning environments. In an AI-driven era, higher education must shift its focus from content transmission to helping students develop higher-order critical thinking, ethical evaluation, and collaborative problem-solving skills—capabilities that AI cannot replicate.

The Contemporary Learning Hub (CLH) has been created to support a the vital pedagogical shift needed to scale high-quality digital courseware. The platform is grounded in rigorous socio-cultural and pragmatic educational traditions—Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and transformative activist pedagogies. Our aim is to bridge the gap between educational theory and day-to-day academic practice, providing institutions with the frameworks and practical tools necessary to build deeply engaging, tool-mediated, and socially constructed online learning experiences. Contemporary learning is best understood as a complex, dynamic, and deeply social process that moves far beyond the traditional notion of passive knowledge reception. This modern perspective views learning as the active construction of understanding rooted in experience, social interaction, and the use of real-world application. It is a synthesis of influential socio-cultural and pragmatic traditions that emphasises context, collaboration, and critical engagement.

We offer a robust ecosystem designed to enhance staff capacity and streamline curriculum development across five primary learning design dimensions:

The Learning Activity Evaluator: A diagnostic tool that helps academic staff reflect on their teaching approaches along a continuum from traditional didactic methods to fully realised authentic learning and assessment practices.
The Learning Design Planner: Structured around five core questions to guide lecturers—many of whom are disciplinary experts without formal training in learning design—in purposefully mapping out active-learning engagements.
The Open Learning Creator: Available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, this tool provides a structured environment for developing comprehensive online curricula organised into themed modules, sections, and activities.
Institutional AI & Literacy Surveys: We facilitate custom institutional evaluations, including the AI for Education Survey. This specific instrument is informed by collaborative research from Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town to gather crucial insights into how faculty and staff are being supported in integrating AI into higher education.

To directly support faculty's professional development, we have a selection of open workshops available on the CLH website. These programmes are designed to model contemporary learning design in practice and can be fully facilitated by CLH members at your institution to drive capacity building.

We are well-positioned to partner with your institution to facilitate workshops, deliver staff development programmes, and support the conversion of paper-based learning materials into high-quality online formats. Our team has extensive experience leading and supporting major learning and teaching initiatives for organisations such as Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM)—a programme of Universities South Africa (USAf) — and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Examples of work include the design and implementation of the Universities Learning Futures Project, the University Lecturer Development Programme, both of which focused on strengthening teaching and learning through innovative educational practices. Sixteen online modules of the Advanced Diploma: Technical and Vocational Teaching (AD:TVT) were designed and developed for DHET, applying an activity-based approach that emphasised authentic, real world application.

Policies

Members and Support

Who we are: Biographical information.
Act as facilitators: We can facilitate any of the workshops available on this website.
Help you create your online learning materials: This could be one-on-one support or in group sessions.
Develop your online learning materials: We can help you create a paper version of your materials and convert them to an online format.

Dr Alan Amory

Dr Alan Amory’s academic career reflects a sustained and thoughtful engagement with the ways knowledge, technology, and learning intersect within higher education and broader educational systems. Trained initially as a scientist, he completed a PhD in Plant Biochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. His early academic work, including fifteen years as a lecturer in the Biology Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), grounded him in disciplinary knowledge, empirical inquiry, and the pedagogical challenges of teaching complex concepts in higher education.

This grounding in the sciences provided the foundation for a gradual but significant shift in his scholarly focus—from disciplinary teaching to the mediating role of technology in learning. As Director of the Centre for Information Technology in Higher Education at UKZN, Dr Amory began to interrogate how digital tools shape teaching practices, institutional structures, and the nature of knowledge construction itself. This transition marked a move away from technology as infrastructure toward technology as a cultural and pedagogical artefact embedded within social activity systems.

His subsequent appointment in 2007 as Acting Chief Director for Education Support Services at the Gauteng Department of Education extended this inquiry into the policy and systems level, where issues of access, support, and scalability became central concerns.

Later that year, Dr Amory assumed a series of senior academic leadership roles, including Head of the Department of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Computer, Director of the Centre for Academic Technologies, and Professor of Educational Technologies. Across these roles, his work consistently bridged theory, practice, and institutional transformation, while also contributing to the development of academic staff and digital learning ecosystems.

Dr Amory’s research is underpinned by a strong theoretical orientation, particularly Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), which he employs to analyse learning as a socially situated, tool-mediated activity shaped by contradictions and tensions within educational systems. This theoretical stance is most visibly expressed in his internationally recognised work on video games and learning. Through the development of the Game Object Model (GOM), he has provided a rigorous framework for the design, evaluation, and analysis of educational games, foregrounding the alignment between pedagogical intent, learner activity, and technological affordances.

Beyond games-based learning, his scholarship engages critically with notions of authentic learning, the construction of knowledge through tools, and the ideological assumptions embedded in educational technologies. His work challenges instrumental views of technology, instead positioning digital tools as mediators that both enable and constrain learning practices. This critical stance has contributed to ongoing debates about the purposes of educational technology in contexts marked by inequality, institutional complexity, and rapid technological change.

Dr Amory’s scholarly contributions have been recognised through a B-rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, indicating significant international esteem. His applied research is exemplified by his role as principal author of the Open Learning System (OLS) developed at UKZN, as well as his receipt of the South African Government’s Innovation Fund Award. Collectively, his work reflects a coherent intellectual project concerned with understanding—and reshaping—the conditions under which technology meaningfully supports learning in higher education and beyond.

The articles below reflect on Dr Amory's wide-ranging topics, including computer games for learning, website design, and authentic learning.

Ms Maryla Bialobrzeska

Maryla Bialobrzeska holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum Design and has more than 40 years of experience across the education sector. Her career has spanned schooling, higher education, and the NGO sector, working in both rural and urban contexts in South Africa and across several sub-Saharan African countries.

She began her career as a teacher in the Western Cape and later served as a school principal in Venda. She subsequently worked in higher education, including at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North-West University) and the University of Venda, where she contributed to teacher education programmes.

Since 1995, Maryla has worked primarily in the education NGO sector, focusing on curriculum and course design, research and evaluation, and professional development. Her work has included the design and development of a number of large-scale national programmes in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (AD TVT), Community Education and Training (NASCA) and Higher Education (AD SLM). She has also led initiatives in teaching and learning development, academic support for vulnerable learners, as well as in continuing professional development across the Schooling, TVET College and Higher Education sub-sectors.

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Introduction: Contemporary Learning

Contemporary learning theories emphasise that education is not a passive transfer of information but an active, social, and transformative process. John Dewey (1938) pioneered this view by framing education as experiential and democratic, where learners engage in inquiry, reflection, and participation in community life. Dewey’s vision connected knowledge with real-world problem solving, preparing learners for active citizenship.

Lev Vygotsky (1978) expanded this perspective by stressing the cultural and social foundations of learning. His concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) highlighted how collaboration and guidance enable learners to achieve more than they could on their own. Learning, for Vygotsky, is inherently mediated by cultural tools such as language and shaped by social interaction.

Bloom’s taxonomy further advanced thinking about learning by categorising cognitive processes into hierarchical levels—remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating (Bloom, 1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). This framework remains influential in encouraging educators to design learning activities that move beyond rote memorisation towards higher-order thinking and creativity.

Building on these traditions, Yrjö Engeström (1987, 2001) introduced activity theory and the concept of expansive learning, which positions learning as a process of collective transformation within activity systems. Learners do not simply acquire knowledge; they collaboratively expand the boundaries of practice by questioning and reshaping the systems in which they participate.

Anna Stetsenko (2008, 2017) extends this transformative perspective with her transformative activist stance, which emphasises learning as a practice of becoming—where individuals and groups engage in knowledge creation not only to understand the world but also to change it in pursuit of justice and equity.

In the field of educational technology, Tom Reeves (2006, 2011) emphasises authentic, problem-focused research and design, showing how technology can serve as a tool for meaningful collaboration and engagement with real-world issues. Alan Amory (2007, 2010) similarly explores how digital games and interactive media can foster expansive forms of learning, in which learners critically engage with knowledge, tools, and social practices to transform themselves and their communities.

Taken together, these perspectives suggest that contemporary learning is experiential (Dewey, 1938), socially mediated (Vygotsky, 1978), cognitively scaffolded (Bloom, 1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), systemically transformative (Engeström, 1987, 2001), activist in orientation (Stetsenko, 2008, 2017), and technologically mediated (Reeves, 2006; Amory, 2007). This integrated view positions learners as active participants in shaping not only their own development but also the societies in which they live.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The ZPD is a concept in educational psychology and a key part of Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (1978). It is defined as the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner. This "zone" is considered the most effective area for instruction because the task is just challenging enough to promote maximum cognitive growth, yet still attainable with the proper support.

The Components of the ZPD describe learning as a social process with three distinct levels of development:

Tasks a learner can accomplish without assistance (Actual Development): These are the skills and knowledge the learner has already mastered. If a task falls in this area, instruction is unnecessary because the learner can complete it independently.
Tasks a learner can accomplish with assistance (Zone of Proximal Development - ZPD): This is the "sweet spot" for learning. The learner is close to mastering the skill but needs guidance to bridge the gap between their current and potential ability. What a student can do with help today, they can do independently tomorrow.
Tasks a learner cannot accomplish even with assistance: These tasks are too complex and are outside the learner's developmental reach, even with support. Instruction here would be ineffective and frustrating.

References

Amory, A. (2007). Game object model version II: A theoretical framework for educational game development. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55(1), 51–77.

Amory, A. (2010). Learning to play games or playing games to learn? A health education case study with Soweto teenagers. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(6), 810–829.

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.

Bloom, B. S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain.

McKay.Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. Macmillan.

Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit.

Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156.

Reeves, T. C. (2006). Design research from a technology perspective. In J. van den Akker, K. Gravemeijer, S. McKenney & N. Nieveen (Eds.), Educational design research (pp. 52–66). Routledge.

Reeves, T. C. (2011). Can educational research be both rigorous and relevant? Educational Designer, 1(4).

Stetsenko, A. (2008). From relational ontology to transformative activist stance on development and learning: Expanding Vygotsky’s (CHAT) project. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3(2), 471–491.

Stetsenko, A. (2017). The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky’s approach to development and education. Cambridge University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Online Tools

The Learning Activity Evaluator, Planner and Consensus Building tools are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license . You are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) provided that appropriate credit is given to the source, a link to the license is included, and any changes made are indicated. and indicate if changes were made.

The Open Learning Creator is licensed under the Apache License, a permissive open-source software license. This license allows you to freely use, modify, distribute, and sublicense the software, including for commercial purposes, provided that copyright notices and license terms are retained.

You are welcome to download and install the software on your own cloud-based hosting. However, the Open Learning Creator is available as Software as a Service (SaaS) - a cloud-based software delivery model in which the application is hosted by a provider and accessed by users over the Internet, typically through a web browser, usually on a subscription basis).

Learning Activity Evaluator: This tool supports the development of learning materials by encouraging reflection on a range of teaching approaches. These range from more didactic methods to transformative pedagogies, and include authentic learning and assessment practices. The tool helps users consider the extent to which these approaches are incorporated in their materials, from not implemented to fully implemented.
Planner: Effective learning design is guided by five key questions that support academic development and student success. The Planner uses these questions to assist educators in designing and structuring online learning materials in a clear and purposeful way.
Consensus Building: Consensus building is a collaborative decision-making process in which individuals or groups work together to reach outcomes that are broadly supported by all participants. Rather than relying on a majority vote or hierarchical authority, consensus-building emphasises dialogue, mutual understanding, and shared responsibility. The goal is to arrive at solutions that, while not necessarily everyone’s first choice, are acceptable to all and reflect collective interests.
Surveys: Two surveys are available to support reflection and planning: 1. Digital Literacy Survey – designed for individuals, and 2. AI for Education Survey - designed for institutions.
Open Learning Creator: While the Planner is useful for designing shorter learning engagements such as one- to three-hour workshops, it can also support the development longer learning experiences, such as a curriculum modules. The Open Learning Creator provides a platform for developing online curricula that are organised into modules with specific themes. Each module includes sections and related activities that support structured online learning.

Background to the Learning Activity Evaluator

The Learning Activity Evaluator considers three essential dimensions of effective learning design: pedagogical principles, authentic learning, and authentic assessment. Each dimension includes a set of indicators that describe a continuum ranging from didactic approaches to transformative pedagogy.

Pedagogical Principles:

This dimension examines the underlying assumptions about learning and how learning activities are designed.

Notions of learning

Use of ICT in education

Models of learning design

Bloom's forms of thinking

Authentic Learning:

This dimension considers the extent to which the learning activity reflects meaningful, real-world learning experiences. Each indicator is evaluated along a continuum from not implemented to fully implemented.

Learning task has real-world relevance

Learning task is open-ended

Learning task includes a number of subtasks

Learning tasks require students to undertake complex investigations

Provides opportunities for students to investigate the tasks from different perspectives

Provides collaborative opportunities

Provides reflective opportunities

Yields possible products that include more than one iteration

Allows competing answers or solutions

Authentic Assessment:

This dimension evaluates whether assessment practices align with authentic learning processes.

Context

Student's role

Student's effort

Nature of the activity

Indicators of learning

The Learning Activity Evaluator can be used either to design new learning activities or to evaluate and improve existing ones.

Explore: Learning Activity Evaluator

Background to the Planner

Why Learning Design Matters

Many lecturers are experts in their field, few have formal training in educational theory and learning design. This raises an important question: How effective is the education we provide our students?

Research shows that traditional lecture-based teaching may not be the most effective approach.

One study found that undergraduate students in classes with traditional stand-and-deliver lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail than those in classes that use more stimulating active-learning methods.

A major review conducted at the University of Washington, Seattle (2014) confirmed that active learning not only improves student grades but also significantly reduces failure rates in undergraduate STEM courses.

Effective learning design is guided by principles that enhance academic development, promote quality teaching and learning, and student success.

To structure this process, five key questions — each with multiple elements and criteria — can guide the development of contemporary learning design, helping educators create meaningful, engaging, and effective learning experiences.

Background:

Consider learning design principles that enhance academic development, promote high-quality teaching and learning, and foster student success. The development of contemporary learning design can be guided by five key questions, each comprising several elements and criteria, that help structure it.

These questions can guide the development of learning materials. The Planner incorporates them to support the design and development of contemporary online learning material.

Explore the Planner

Background to Consensus Building

Consensus is a way for a group to make decisions together by reaching an agreement that everyone can accept. Instead of using voting where the majority decides, consensus focuses on discussion, listening to different viewpoints, and working together to find a solution. In a consensus process, participants share ideas, consider others' concerns, and adjust proposals until the group finds an option that most members support and no one strongly opposes.

Key idea:

Consensus aims for shared agreement and cooperation, not simply winning a vote.

Example:

A group of students planning a project discusses different topic ideas and continues talking until they agree on one that everyone is willing to work on.

Summary:

Consensus is a collaborative decision-making process where people work together to reach a solution acceptable to the whole group.

The Consensus Building App ask for the issue to be considered. Thereafter, participants follow the steps below.

Step 1

Add your contributions to the topic

Wait for other members to add their contributions

Refresh the list of contributions

Step 2

Review all the contributions

Select the items you think are pertinent

Submit your choices

Refresh the list of selected contributions

Step 3

Review all the contributions

Select two items you think are the most pertinent

Submit your choices

Refresh the list

End

The most popular items are displayed

Explore Consensus Building

Available Surveys

Digital Competence of Educators

The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) Survey includes the following areas:

Professional engagement
Digital resources
Teaching and learning
Assessment
Empowering students
Facilitating students’ digital competence.

This survey is designed for individual educators. Once you have completed the survey, the system will automatically generates your competence scores.

AI in Education Survey
Faculty Staff Support Survey is based on the work undertaken by Hanelie Adendorff, Francois Cilliers Cheng-Weng Huang, Soraya Lester, Sonja Strydom and Sukaina Waljib from Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. Their work, A Practical Guide for Lecturers: Use the Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows, informs the design of this survey.

This survey is intended for Institutional use and is designed to gather insights into how faculty and staff are supported in using AI in education.

Open Learning Creator

Developing an online curriculum can be challenging. Two courses that exemplify effective teaching practices and provide useful and examples are provided below. The first example is an early learning professional development course designed to help educators and caregivers support young children’s learning and development in the pre-school years.The course is organised into modules that address different aspects of early learning, ranging broadly from observing children to creating inclusive learning environments and strengthening teamwork around a child. The design supports:

Early childhood development through structured modules that guide planning, observation, classroom strategies, and inclusive practice
Teachers, caregivers, and others involved in early learning, by linking key developmental domains — physical, cognitive, social–emotional — with practical learning environments, and
Integration with literacy resources, complementing the African Storybooks (teaching guides) by providing pedagogy and classroom strategies that help children learn effectively.

The second example is an extract of learning and teaching materials used in a structured learning programme leading to the Advanced Diploma of Technical and Vocation Teaching. The target group is TVET college lecturers and workshop facilitators. The extract consists of three teaching and learning units from the Automotive Repair and Maintenance module, which provides structured guidance to support the teaching of this technical subject.

The programme learning material is organised into modules and units that progressively build knowledge, covering both the technical content and the pedagogical approaches needed to teach it effectively. The main section includes:

Programme Introduction:
Provides an overview of the programme, explaining the overall purpose of the qualification and the approach to teaching and learning across the whole programme.
Module Overview:
Presents a broad outline of the purpose or learning focus, outcomes, structure—number of units and credits—where relevant of the specific module.
Unit 1: Health and Safety in Engineering Workshop Practice:
Examines safe workshop behaviour and the safety standards that are essential when teaching practical automotive skills.
Unit 2: The Pedagogy of Automotive Repair and Maintenance:
Explores teaching methods specific to this vocational subject, including how to design lessons, choose and select appropriate instructional strategies, and help support learners in understanding and grasping technical concepts.
Unit 3: Teaching about Internal Combustion Engines and Motor Vehicle Troubleshooting, Maintenance, and Testing:
Focuses on both the content knowledge and teaching strategies needed to help learners understand core automotive systems, diagnostic practices and maintenance practices.

This online course helps lecturers to understand and teach the technical aspects of automotive repair and maintenance. It supports educators in applying effective teaching methods using real world examples and assignments suited to vocational and skills-based learning.

This course was created using the Open Learning Creator.

About the Open Learning Creator

To iterate: The Open Learning Creator is licensed under the Apache License, a permissive open-source software license. This license allows users to freely use, modify, distribute, and sublicense software, including for commercial purposes, provided that the original copyright notices and license terms are retained.

Users are welcome to download and install the software on their own cloud-based hosting environment. Alternatively, the Open Learning Creator is available as Software as a Service (SaaS) — a cloud-based software delivery model in which applications are hosted by a provider and accessed over the internet, typically through a web browser and often on a subscription basis.

You can explore and use the Open Learning Creator for a free month. Thereafter, you can continue to update the three projects you previously created but will not be able to add components or create new projects. To continue to make use of all the Open Learning Creator components, please select the most appropriate payment regime.

Popular for individuals

Free Trial

For individuals getting started

Free

Up to 3 projects
Email support
Access to all features

Most Popular

Pro

For growing teams

R200 + VAT / month

Unlimited projects
Access to all features
Priority email support
EFT or Bank Card

Institutional

Enterprise

For Insitutions

R500 + VAT / month

Unlimited projects
Open to any employer
Access to all features
Introduction workshop per year
EFT or Bank Card/li>
Invoice

Online Programmes and Workshops:

These workshops are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This means you are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt it (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose as long as you give appropriate credit, with a link to your source, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

Feel free to use these programmes and workshops at your institutions. CLH members could also be employed as facilitators.

University Lecturer Development Programme: The ULDP aimed to: 1. Look into ways to improve teaching and learning across the entire university sector, 2. Boost the academic knowledge and skills of teaching and teacher support staff, 3. Improve teaching and learning across the whole university sector, and 4. Create opportunities for collaboration and cooperation among higher education institutions.
Universities Learning Futures Programme: The Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme (HELM) and Saide (Programme Coordinator) collaborated to develop the ULEFU online learning programme to help the historically disadvantaged South African Higher Education Sector embrace digital learning and teaching. This included developing several components: 1. Creating and rolling out a technology-mediated learning programme framework, a digital literacy guide and an online learning toolkit for staff at all current HDIs, 2. Coming up with, developing and delivering a custom training programme for up to 50 academic and administrative staff on learning futures, covering global and national trends/development, leadership and management, strategy, innovation, planning and operations, and 3. Setting up and implementing an online knowledge and document repository on digital transformation, technology-mediated teaching and learning policies, strategies, plans and case studies that will be accessible through HELM’s LMS CanvasDetails and Summary, where you can add custom styling and animation?
How to develop Short Learning Modules Workshop: Learn how to design a short learning programme (SLP) that includes topics, activities, multimedia and assessments.
Design-Based Research Workshop. This engagement explores research paradigms for evaluating technology-based learning, with a focus on Design-Based Research (DRB) for interactive learning systems.

Background to the University Lecturer Development Programme

The Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme (HELM) and Saide (Programme Coordinator) managed the Inception Phase of the University Lecturer Development Programme (ULDP). The purpose of the ULDP was to:·

Improve teaching and learning across the whole university sector·.
Enhance academic knowledge and competencies of teaching and teacher support staff members.
Support the development of professional skills and attitudes in research and community engagement.
Provide opportunities for higher education institutional collaboration and cooperation.

Thereby supporting lecturers to reflect on their current practices and enhance their skills in developing learning engagements, assessment, and research approaches for different modalities, including face-to-face, blended, and fully online teaching. Participants included experts from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including an expert reference group and master trainers who will lead the future development of academic members at their institutions.

The primary objective of the inception phase was to identify the problems to be addressed to achieve the project's aims and objectives. Saide, supported by a HELM project team, designed and conducted several online interaction workshops, including:

Induction – to identify participants and to engage with and learn about learning activity-based pedagogical designs, including learning with technology rather than from technology.
Fundamental principles – to agree on several fundamental principles that underpin the development
Use Design-Based Research (explained below) to identify problems related to competency outcomes for ULDP participants and develop templates for the future development of appropriate learning material for the ULDP.

Explore: University Lecturer Development Programme

Background to the Universities Learning Futures Programme

The Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme (HELM) and Saide (Programme Coordinator) created an online learning programme to implement digital learning and teaching for the historically disadvantaged South African Higher Education Sector: this included the development of several components:

Development and implementation of a technology-mediated learning programme framework, digital literacy guide, and online learning toolkit for staff at all current HDIs.
Conceptualisation, development, and delivery of a bespoke training programme for a maximum of 50 academic and administrative staff on learning futures in terms of global and national trends/development, leadership and management, strategy, innovation, planning and operations
The creation and implementation of an online knowledge and document repository on digital transformation, technology-mediated teaching and learning policies, strategies, plans and case studies that will be accessible via the HELM’s LMS Canvas.

Devilerables included:

Deliverable 1

A digital transformation and technology-mediated learning programme framework, a digital literacy guide, and an online learning toolkit for staff at all current eight HDIs.

Deliverable 2

A bespoke training programme for a maximum of 50 academic and administrative staff on learning futures in terms of global and national trends/development, leadership and management, strategy, innovation, planning and operations.

Deliverable 3

An online knowledge and document repository on digital transformation, technology-mediated teaching and learning policies, strategies, plans and case studies that will be accessible via the HELM website.

Six workshops were created, each 3 hours long. Use the (above right) to choose the workshops you would like to explore.

Explore: A Universities Learning Futures Programme

Background to the Development of Short Learning Modules Workshop

The focus was to:

Build an understanding of how to design a short learning programme that includes topics, activities, multimedia and assessments.
Examine the use of media (images, audio and videos) used to mediate learning.

Outcomes:

Critically examine the structure of the online learning course to better understand how the topics, learning activities and assessments are interconnected, ensuring a cohesive and effective education experience.
Develop an understanding of the use of media to support and enhance learning through explicit mediation, improving student engagement and understanding.
Develop knowledge of the key media components that significantly influence the design and implementation of technology-mediated learning frameworks, ensuring their effective integration and utilisation in educational settings.

Learnings:

Develop an understanding of how to design a short learning programme that includes topics, activities, multimedia and assessments.
Examine the use of media (images, audio, and video) to mediate learning.

Explore: Development of Short Learning Modules Workshops

Background to Design-Based Research Workshop

The focus was to:

Explore the research paradigms best suited to evaluating technology-based learning.

Outcomes:

Understand the difference between research practices based on methodology and paradigms for contemporary evaluation practices.
Understand the four major inquiry paradigms that influence contemporary evaluation practices.
Describe several evaluation models that are relevant to evaluating interactive learning systems.
Understand the importance of Design-Based Research for interactive learning systems.

Learnings:

Develop an understanding and implementation of a Design-Based Research project.

Explore: Design-Based Research Workshop

Introduction: Contemporary Learning

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Add your contributions to the topic

The most popular items are displayed

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