Faculty of Arts and Design

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An analysis of the design features of three mixed-mode courses in a master’s degree programme
(2005) Pratt, Deirdre Denise
This paper suggests that a system of communicative functions can be used to provide a framework for analysing course design, and illustrates this with reference to three mixed-mode courses intended for use in a master’s programme in Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT). The design principle is based on an architecture of functions necessary for effective communication, namely, the contextual, ideational, interactive social and reflexive functions. Because the principle is descriptive rather than prescriptive, and is thought to identify a deep structure of human functioning common to all social interaction, it provides a template for analyse of course design which can be applied within different educational paradigms. The template offers the course designer moving into a new milieu or medium the opportunity to gain a fresh perspective on the process of instructional design. Issues such as the educational context, course content, learning interactions, academic requirements and assessment can be now viewed in terms of how these contribute to knowledge construction, rather than whether the outcome per se is desirable: the latter issue is already addressed comprehensively in current instructional design paradigms
The changing landscape of teaching and learning : how adult students view online approaches at a university in South Africa
(2023-11-17) Thusi, Zamalotshwa Florence Thembisile; Tawiah, Sampson
As university lecturers of an education program, we aim to enhance community college lecturers' social and economic well-being, empowering them with skills for employment and community development. We respond to the need to train lecturers and prospective Adult and Community Education lecturers in South Africa. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our traditional content delivery method has shifted to online teaching and learning. This shift can negatively and positively impact adult students' learning processes. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the perceptions of students involved in online teaching and learning approaches. To achieve this, we adopted a qualitative approach and an experimental design, collecting data from 22 students deemed information-rich. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data collected, and the results positively reflected the relevance of the education program and online teaching and learning. Based on the emergent results, we recommend proper funding and close monitoring of the entire education programme to ensure quality delivery using online approaches.
Digitization of civil technology practical lessons for project-based learning at Ekurhuleni-East, South Africa
(IATED, 2024-07) Msimango, Simphiwe Magnificent
In this modern education system, digitizing education at the secondary school level will be crucial to preparing learners for a world in which technology will become a valuable tool to make Civil Technology practical skills learning easy and more integrated into real-life projects. Digitization of practical lessons involves transferring traditional in-person hands-on practical demonstrations into digital formats using images and video recordings. However, following a teacher-led class, this teaching approach eases teachers' workload because learners will be using digital resources like smartphones and tablets to recall and practice the demonstrated practical skills; and that creates enough time for teachers to monitor and evaluate Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities in the classroom or workshop. Thus, using a case study research strategy, this study aimed to investigate whether digitization of practical lessons could assist in overcoming the challenge of limited time for PBL activities in schools. Purposive sampling was used to select twelve (12) Civil Technology teachers to participate in this study. Non-participant observation and semi-structured interview instruments were used as data-collection methods. Data collected was analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that Civil Technology teachers preferred the hands-on demonstration method and video recordings to conduct PBL. Furthermore, this study found that most Civil Technology teachers from Ekurhuleni East, South Africa do have Information and Communication Technology (ICT) knowledge and their schools have access to educational technologies like computers, smart boards, and internet coverage in their yards that may support digital teaching and learning. Therefore, this study recommends the digitization of Civil Technology practical lessons for effective teaching and convenience purposes.
Exploring the adoption of ChatGPT in higher education : a case of lecturers in a University of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
(IATED, 2024-07) Mlambo, Philani Brian
ChatGPT has been regarded by many scholars as the innovation of the century since its inception in November 2022. This is mainly because of the things that are out of this world that ChatGPT is capable of doing and that has led to many heated arguments about using ChatGPT in higher education settings. As a result, this qualitative study sought to explore the adoption of ChatGPT in higher education by getting the views of eight (8) lecturers through semi-structured interviews. The data from the semi structured interviews was analyzed using a thematic analysis to gauge the lecturer's view about the adoption of ChatGPT in higher education. This study adopted a convenience sampling technique to select the eight (8) lecturers that formed part of this study. This study responded to the objectives of this study through the aid of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory which underpinned this study. The findings from the semi-structured interviews indicated that ChatGPT is a tool that will promote laziness in students and take away the ability to think critically. Findings further revealed that most lectures have engaged with ChatGPT, and they were mesmerized by the ability ChatGPT has. Based on the findings, this study recommends that students should be taught how to use ChatGPT as a supporting tool for teaching and learning rather than taking ChatGPT as a tool to do everything for them which will impact the kind of graduates, they will be upon graduating in higher education.
Gender-based violence : an exploration of its forms, concepts and causes in South Africa
(2022-05-28) Olalere, Folasayo Enoch
Just as in many other countries, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is also pervasive in South Africa, where cultural norms and gender-based customs and traditions condone and reinforce abusive practices. Even though women are the most reported victims of gender-based violence, research shows that men too can be victims. According to Article 13 of the Istanbul Convention, a preventive intervention requires heightened awareness as a first step in changing attitudes and behaviour that perpetuate the different forms of GBV. However, to create an effective awareness, the various forms, concepts, and causes of GBV must be identified and used as a guide in developing awareness. Hence, this paper seeks to investigate the forms, overarching causes and contributing factors influencing the prevalence of gender-based violence in South Africa. The study conducted a systematic literature review to identify, select and critically appraise existing empirical studies on GBV in South Africa. The systematic review used PRISMA guidelines for literature selection and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) data extraction form to extract relevant data, and this data was further analysed using thematic analysis. The findings from the systematic review were described using a summary table, which reveals the different forms of GBV, the overarching causes and the contributing factors to GBV in South Africa. These findings will help develop awareness campaigns that challenge persistent myths, prejudices, stereotypes and disrupt different pathways that lead to GBV
The making of CourseMaker, a web-based shell program which can be set up by the teacher to run online courses
(2003) Pratt, Deirdre Denise
CourseMaker is an HTML shell program which was developed by the presenter as part of a Ph.D. research project on CAI/written composition, but which can be used for a variety of other instructional purposes. CourseMaker contains many of the elements of the traditional classroom translated into the electronic medium, and can be set up by teachers to run a variety of courses in either academic or non-formal subjects, along with any instructions, lesson materials or notes they may wish to include. It has features such as lesson links and pop-up boxes which make it possible to layer and cross-link teaching materials and resources either on CourseMaker itself or the Internet. CourseMaker also provides for input by students, who can continue with a course at any stage or level, and can choose which course or lesson to access as needed. Setting up courses on CourseMaker does not require knowledge of computer programming: courses can be set up by the teacher to suit different academic contexts, purposes and student target groups. CourseMaker is not a commercial product but research output which is thought to have educational potential when used either as or in conjunction with a web-based learning programme.
Modelling social algorithms as design templates for educational software
(2006) Pratt, Deirdre Denise
Education involves a process of initiating learners into complex socio-cultural processes which may vary from culture to culture and even between institutions within the same culture, making it difficult to design versatile courseware which has some relevance for the social process to be mastered by learners. Moreover, social elements often operate intra- as well as extra-systemically in social processes, which makes it difficult for the courseware designer to differentiate between the commonalities and variables in learning processes. Yet in spite of the complexity of human social behaviour, psychologists have identified social algorithms which apply to various key domains, and which prepare young people for effective social functioning in a variety of life situations. It is the contention of this paper, based on doctoral research on modelling composition, that it is possible to identify social algorithms which underpin human learning, and which might form the basis for effective courseware, given that such programs would require customisable options so as to cater for the extra-systemic elements applying in various socio-cultural contexts. One of the means whereby social algorithms can be identified is provided by Franck’s modelling process, which uses the principle of reverse engineering. The modelling process is described in some detail, as is the central concept of the social mechanism (i.e. algorithm) with specific reference to the development of educational software in the form of a process-based writing tutor program.
Preparing the future workforce in African universities of technology : a case of new media art as a mutating discipline in the 4IR
(Design Education Forum of Southern Africa, 2021-12-14) Makwela, Mashaole Jacob; Olalere, Folasayo Enoch; Smal, Desiree; Botes, Herman; Salaam, Safia
The industrial revolution, a steady process of change that started in the eighteenth century, has been characterised as presenting different phases. The fourth phase (4IR), which signals an unprecedented convergence of physical, digital and biological spheres into technological forces, is transforming jobs faster than employees can adapt, and setting the base for a different kind of skill. Hence, everyone, including arts and design educators, are asking similar questions about its potential challenges and opportunities in their fields, particularly in the African universities of technology that place emphasis on career-directed courses. One of the questions revolves around the issue of how 4IR will affect the visual arts ecosystem in general and specific to types of skills required, production processes, theory, epistemological curiosity, intellectual tools, authorship, commodification, representation, distribution, among others. Furthermore, it is thought provoking to realise, through literature search that not much is written about the potential challenges and opportunities in the context of visual arts at universities of technology in Africa. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the changing landscape of the supply and demand of skills and how arts and design education can respond to this inevitable change. Using new media art as a case study, the exploratory case study employed post-phenomenology to interrogate the mediating effects of the technological revolution in shaping the new media art discipline. This was achieved through a content analysis of secondary data. In response to these mediating effects, the study proposed a framework that could help create access to new skills sets that would equip students to face the new markets and opportunities.
A systemic model for evaluating online course design : a critical realist approach
(IATED, 2024-03) Reddy, Pregalathan; Pratt, Deidre
At the Durban University of Technology (DUT), the fall-out from the recommendation by the Rapid Response Task Team to transition from the blended mode of teaching to pure online due to the lockdown caused by COVID-19 in 2020 is now being felt. The realisation is dawning that not all courses are created equally and, more damning, that some assessment practices are not as good as others. To remedy this deficit, DUT is currently running an “Assuring the Integrity of Assessment Practices Project”, under the ambit of the Centre for Quality Promotion and Assurance (CQPA). The focus is on evaluating selected online courses. As a possible option for evaluation, this paper proposes a systemic model for evaluating online courses, whether delivered in mixed mode or completely online. The research approach used to develop the model is critical realist, based mainly on Roy Bhaskar’s philosophy, but also includes Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic theory, which shows how principles developed in previous temporal epochs are not always in phase with elements of present-day contexts. This is particularly relevant in the post pandemic era, where it has been observed that student grades which were skewed upward during the COVID-19 period are now plateauing in line with the period before COVID-19. While it is obvious that certain key course elements are now no longer available to both staff and students, a systemic model of course design is needed which distinguishes between the givens and the variables, so that the most urgent course deficits are identified and remedied or replaced. It will be argued that the systemic model of course design discussed in this paper provides insight into the nature of hypermedia communication. It might assist educators to distinguish between Internet communication and written (i.e., hard print) communication by showing how the functions thought essential for learning to take place effectively are carried out in different ways and with different effects in the different media. The model in fact provides a course design principle outlining ‘felicity conditions’ for effective course delivery. However, while it suggests the prerequisites for effective course design, the ultimate assessment of effectiveness is left up to the participants – teacher and students - to decide. As the design principle used is descriptive rather than value-laden, and can thus be adapted to suit the specific local values operating in any given learning context, it is well-suited for use in multicultural educational contexts. However, it must be noted that the model is work-in-progress, and may still be refined further in both research and use.