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National level
Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA)
I am involved in inter-university networks and professional organisations at various levels (national, continental and international) that collaborate on various projects. At a national level I served as the convener of the HELTASA Technology-Enhanced Learning Collaborative Learning Community (TEL CLC) between 2019 and the start of 2021. I curated a list of resources on blended learning and ERT from SA universities shared by members of the community that were either publicly available or shared as Open Educational Resources (OERs). I did this for the national higher education community. This list was also shared by Creative Commons SA. As part of TEL CLC activities together with co-convener Alanna Riley and Neil Kramm, we authored a think piece and hosted a webinar ‘Thinking beyond technology when teaching remotely’. Following this webinar, we also assisted other CLCs to plan and host online events about other Higher Education topics.
Facilitating national research
I support inter-institutional research through helping researchers from other universities get ethical clearance from the right authorities at Rhodes and creating banners on RUconnected with links to the survey or communicating through other channels if the survey is aimed at staff. I have assisted with the SAULM and CHE-USAF-UFS surveys in this way.
Advisory capacity
In March 2019, the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services hosted a workshop and invited stakeholders from a range of sectors to share inputs that would allow them to refine a National Digital Skills Strategy. I was nominated to attend on behalf of Rhodes University. In facilitated sessions we engaged with various aspects of the draft strategy document, ranging from defining 4IR digital skills to sector relevant interventions. I regard participating in this workshop as doing so in an advisory capacity.
Conference presentations
While some conference presentations are more relevant to my research as they may lead to publications, I also present at conferences given my position as an Educational Technology Specialist at Rhodes University. Such opportunities relate more to my operational work than my research interests as an academic. I was invited to make a presentation at the Apereo Africa conference at UCT from 15-17 April 2019 showcasing innovative blended learning practices at Rhodes University. As part of this presentation, I approached specific lecturers who I regard as champions for examples from their courses. The Apereo Foundation's core mission is to assist and facilitate educational organisations which collaborate to foster, develop and sustain open technologies and innovation to support learning and teaching. Apereo Africa brings together a range of higher education institutions involved in educational technology issues and solutions from open-source communities.
On the continent...
Hosted at UCT and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, e/merge Africa is a professional development network for educational technology researchers and practitioners working in African higher education settings. The network offers regular webinars, runs an online course Facilitating Online and shares information and resources with members through a monthly newsletter and Facebook group. The network currently consists of 2 500 members of whom the majority are based in African countries with some representation from countries outside of Africa.
In 2019 and the start of 2020, I was involved as co-convenor of the Facilitating Online course. As my operational commitments at Rhodes became more demanding around the middle of 2020, I withdrew my involvement from the course, but remained an active member of the e/merge Africa core team. While I had a contract with UCT as a guest lecturer, I chose not to claim funds as I felt Rhodes staff were benefitting and I saw it as part of my job, offering a high quality professional development opportunity that I could not do alone (Neil Kramm joined CHERTL in December 2019). It also spoke to the need among staff who wanted to engage in a more in-depth professional development opportunity and develop their online facilitation practices. The course is 8 weeks long, including 2 consolidation weeks. Ten staff members participated in 2019 and five in 2020. Many of the lecturers who took up this opportunity are among those who became e-learning champions at the university.
Rhodes staff also attended e/merge Africa webinars that I promoted so some had exposure to a fully online course and the webinar format before the pandemic. While my e/merge Africa work is professional development, in the broader context it may be considered as part of teaching as the network’s offerings model good online design and facilitation practices that Rhodes lecturers had not been exposed to much before. I have and continue to present, co-present and coordinate webinars for the network on a regular basis and invited fellow Rhodes colleagues to present for the network. Recordings of webinars present or co-presented by myself and Rhodes colleagues since I started working at Rhodes university are available on this YouTube playlist (also linked below). The Carnegie Corporation of New York recently did a news piece about the network that can be read here.
Carnegie Reporter, April 2021. Read the full story here.
Internationally...
I am a member of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), a US-based professional association of instructional designers and educators across sectors ranging from universities and schools to the armed forces, libraries and so forth. It is the most globally recognised association for information concerning a wide range of instructional and educational technologies. The e/merge Africa network became affiliated with the AECT in 2016. I travelled to Las Vegas to attend the convention that year and signed the affiliate agreement. Since then I have been an active member and joined a range of divisions. The International division and Culture, Learning and Technology (CLT) division are ones I am most passionate about.
The CLT division is for educational technology researchers and a range of professionals who are interested in issues at the intersection of culture, learning and technology. I currently serve as a member of the board of this division. Since 2019 I was the Vice President (VP) of Special Projects and in 2020 was voted as incoming President Elect Designate. As VP of special projects, I facilitate collaboration between the e/merge Africa network and the CLT division in the form of collaborative online events. In 2020 I coordinated one on trauma-informed approaches to support teaching during the pandemic that was presented by Dr Hannah Grossman. Hannah also presented an online event on this topic for Rhodes University colleagues. My professional involvement enables me to bring value to the local academic community as well as an international one. As President Elect Designate I will be expected to work closely with the President Elect to work on the CLT division’s contributions to the programme for the 2022 annual convention. The organisation hosts an annual conference that they refer to as a convention and members submit proposals to present presentations, panel sessions, workshops, etc to the different divisions where there alignments between the theme of the convention for a particular year, the mission of a division and a member’s proposal. As a member of the organisation I also review proposals for the annual convention submitted to the different divisions that I am part of.
In 2020, members of the CLT division were requested to draft an inclusivity statement for the organisation and I contributed to this. As a member from a developing country, I advocate for alternative fee arrangements for African participants, especially with the virtual format in 2020 and hybrid format of the convention in 2021.
At Rhodes University: Contributions to policy
In 2019, lecturers from the Rhodes Business School and Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute applied for accreditation for online postgraduate programmes through the Institutional Research, Planning & Quality Promotion unit. As part of their applications for accreditation from the Council on HIgher Education (CHE), the lecturers needed assistance with explaining the educational technologies at Rhodes and the design of particular aspects of their programmes, particularly in relation to online assessment. I was consulted to advise them so that they would be able to complete their applications with the relevant information but also that these sections of their applications read in a way that would be acceptable and convincing to the CHE. As part of the accreditations process, the CHE also required an online learning policy. I collaborated with my HOD, Prof Jo-Anne Vorster, Remy Nnadozie (Director: Institutional Research, Planning & Quality Promotion) and later Neil Kramm to write the Rhodes Online Education Policy.
Reviewing for journals
Since I started working at Rhodes I have reviewed abstracts for conferences (HELTASA, Networked Learning Conference, AECT) and articles for various journals. These include:
Alternation (2020)
Computers and Education (2019)
Learning, Media and Technology (2019)
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (JLDHE) (2019)
SoTL in the South (2019)
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