Exploring the Migration to a Digitalised Curriculum at UKZN

Abstract

The COVID-19 revolution has demanded that higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa, as in most other countries globally, migrate to a digitalised curriculum (DC). The DC is a plan for or of digital technology-driven education. The COVID-19 revolution compelled the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) to migrate to a DC in order to complete the 2020 academic year or calendar. Pragmatism, critical discourse analysis (CDA), and community of inquiry (CoI) with natural identity (NI) framed the document analysis used to generate data for this study. Purposive convenience sampling was used to select the published documents that carry information on the migration to a DC at UKZN. It was for this reason that this study explored and understood the migration to a DC at UKZN through the use of digital resources. Findings suggested that, while the UKZN had the professional identity of migration through engaging Moodle, it began the migration through the use of WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, and Zoom video conferencing technology (ZVCT), promoting societal identity. The migration seemed to miss the personal or pragmatic identity as an important ingredient of a DC, which addresses individual personal needs. Consequently, this study recommends a DC that balances performance-based, competence-based, and pragmatic/personal identities in order to address professional, societal, and personal needs, respectively, for natural identity realisation.

Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Approach

“…(3) improving online materials (detailed course handbooks, additional asynchronous materials, pre-recorded materials, recordings of online live sessions, etc.) and gradually migrating towards a digitalised curriculum (see [80]); (4) providing technical and pedagogical training for teachers and students before introducing new systems or teaching approaches;…”

Individual dynamics for effective implementation of mainstream English curriculum at a school for the deaf

“…Using WhatsApp during the lockdowns as revealed in T1's submission suggests that teachers were driven by the social need to communicate through the common social media platform(s). The horizontal/competence-based curriculum allows the use of social media sites to promote social interactions and the construction of knowledge in order to achieve learning outcomes (Raselimo & Mahao, 2015;Khoza, 2020a;Khoza, 2021a;Khoza, 2021b). This study argues, however, that such learning spaces should be fully embraced and utilised not only during lockdowns but also post lockdowns to promote informal learning (bottom-up dynamics).…”

“…Teachers' reflections of their practices and experiences indicate whether they are driven by any of the three identities. The three identities combine to form the natural identity (Khoza, 2021a;2021b) as shown in Figure 1. This combination therefore places the NI at the centre of the three identities.…”

“…The teachers' use of physical spaces for learning suggest that they are driven by the top-down dynamics. While this set up remains an important professional identity (Khoza, 2021b), it restricts teaching and learning to the classroom/school environment, and in the process suppresses the recognition and effective use of other learning spaces that support learning such as social media spaces and digital/online spaces (Khoza, 2021a;Mpungose & Khoza, 2020a). The teachers' articulations highlight how much they have been captured to believe that physical spaces are the best learning spaces for these learners.…”

“…These observations were confirmed by other researchers such as (Csizer & Kontra, 2020;Xiang, 2018;Rahmatunnisa et al, 2019). The findings on curriculum adjustments are influenced by the individual need (pragmatic) to maximize the learners' potential and to help them acquire competences (Khoza, 2021b;Shoba, 2021). However, this need is impeded by the inflexible curriculum which is driven by the professional force (top-down dynamic).…”