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    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.
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    The impact of socio-cultural factors on blended learning in the development of academic literacy in a tertiary vocational context
    (2009) Gutteridge, Robert Geoffrey; Pratt, Deirdre Denise
    This study investigated key factors impacting on blended learning delivery with particular focus on socio-cultural and human-computer-interface issues, in the hope that the outcome of this enquiry might contribute positively towards the empowerment of learners and facilitators alike. The study involved a group of first year students enrolled in a Communications Skills Course offered by the (then) Department of English and Communication at the Durban University of Technology. The PRINTS Project, a webquest around which the course activities were based, provided an example of a blended delivery course in practice. While the teaching paradigm used in the course was constructivist, the research orientation employed in this project was critical realist. Critical realism focuses on transformation through praxis and also lends itself to modelling, which provides a way to understand the factors at play within a social system. In the preliminary stages of the research, an exploratory empirical (i.e. applied) model of blended learning delivery was formulated from a theoretical model of course delivery in order to assess which factors in blended learning were systemic and which were variables. The investigation then sought to uncover key factors impacting on the blended delivery system, utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The findings were analysed in terms of the empirical model to gain an understanding of any factors that might be seen to either enhance or inhibit learning in blended delivery mode. The result was that certain core issues in blended learning and teaching could be clarified, including the use, advantages and disadvantages of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a learning environment. The notion of the digital divide could also be reconceptualised, and the relationship between literacy (be it academic, professional or social), power and culture could be further elucidated, drawing specific attention to the South African educational environment. The notion of iv culture and its relevance in a blended delivery environment was also further clarified, since the findings of this research project suggested how and why certain key socio-cultural factors might impact, as both enhancers and inhibitors, on the blended learning delivery system.
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    The role of the social mechanism in social transformation: a critical realist approach to blended learning.
    (2006) Pratt, Deirdre Denise; Gutteridge, Robert Geoffrey
    This paper deals with ongoing curriculum development in mixed mode, focusing in particular on student response to blended learning at a multicultural University of Technology. This is currently the subject of a masters research project investigating the possible ways in which learner access and response to blended learning might be affected by socio-cultural elements. The research investigates the impact of socio-cultural factors on blended learning in the development of academic literacy in a tertiary vocational context, and, it is hoped, will identify some of the factors which contribute positively or negatively towards blended learning in multicultural settings. The research orientation is critical realism, which is highly compatible with the scaffolded constructivist learning approach used in the Department of English & Communication’s Comm. Skills Online course, but has additional ontological dimensions which are helpful in pointing the way to social transformation. A key concept in critical realist research is that of the social mechanism, which can be seen as having two aspects, formal and practical: Franck’s modelling process represents these as theoretical and empirical models respectively. A tentative empirical model of blended learning based on a theoretical model of course design is discussed: socio-cultural factors impacting on both affect and access issues in blended learning can be represented as input into the system inherent in the social mechanism. The merits and disadvantages of the video protocol analysis as a possible research tool for capturing data on student response to blended learning are also discussed, and the paper concludes with the implications of this type of modelling for social transformation.