This is a call to rethink Open and Distance Learning ( ODL) provision in a post COVID-19 era.

1. Moving from challenges to opportunities :
What will become our "new normal " for
teaching and learning in an ODL context?
Rita Ndagire Kizito 14 October 2020

3. NEED FOR RE-ORGANISING OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL)
COVID-19 has become “a catalyst for the potential digital
transformation of higher education, sparking an intense
period of reorganization that will surely be followed by
necessary innovation and investment”
Philippa Hardman, University World News, 3 October, 2020

4. Innovation
Adaptability
& flexibility
NEED FOR RE-ORGANISING ODL
Digital
transformation
strategy
Enablers Execution
Teaching ,Learning & Research plans
and policies
Investment/resources
People and HE culture
IT systems & infrastructure
Data systems/analytics
Embracing new technologies
drivers leaders
Continuous re-organisation while upholding the UNISA vision
“Towards the African university shaping futures in the service of humanity”
catalyst
Digitality ( Letseka,
2020)
Digital Awareness
Digital Literacy
Digital Fluency
HUMANE

6. Return to a safe and
well known ‘normal’ –
providing learning
experiences to
groups of students
we have been serving
for years? as the
pandemic wanes.
Take a new
‘alternate normal’ or
route where we
consider designing
new learning
experiences , and
reach new students
and audiences
THE PROVERBIAL FORK

8. Questions
• Where is ODL headed?
• What will Unisa’s role be in that future?
• How does one create a path that balances a
sense of direction with the ability to adapt
quickly?
Moving from challenges to opportunities and
creating a new normal
Moving from challenges to opportunities to create
a new normal
Start with “Learning Activity design”

9. CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES
Adapting to new ways of
functioning for staff & students
Deepen and scale what we have for both staff and
digitality ( awareness, fluency, literacy); increase academic
support & skills development
Connectivity, access to devices and
data
Vision planning; device and data provision at the University’s
cost; partnerships with Ed-tech providers & institutions
Educational and digital inequality Unisa has a history of addressing marginalised students.
What has worked? What needs revisiting? What can be
shared in South Africa, across the African continent and
globally?
Access to resources Openness; Open Education Resources .Where is Unisa in
space globally ?
Student motivation and success Embrace African pedagogies; Embrace new technologies;
Invent new ones
Assessment in ODL IGNOU, OU-UK;BOU: AIOU; OUC; “It's all systems go for
Unisa's online examinations”: spread this to the rest of the
continent & globally

10. SOME EXAMPLES
OPPORTUNITIES EXAMPLES
Deepen and scale what we have for both staff and students;
digitality ( awareness, fluency, literacy); increase academic support
& skills development
Letseka, M. (2020); Ngubane-
Mokiwa, S. A. (2017
Vision planning; device and data provision at the University’s cost;
partnerships with Ed-tech providers & institutions
Satar, A. A. (2019); Willis, J. E.,
Slade, S., & Prinsloo, P. (2016)
Unisa has a history of addressing marginalised students. What has
worked? What needs revisiting? What can be shared in South
across the African continent and globally?
Letseka, M., Letseka, M. M., &
Pitsoe, V. (2018);
Czerniewicz, L., & Rother, K.
(2018);
Openness; Open Education Resources ;Where is Unisa in this
globally ?
Maphosa, C., & Bhebhe, S.
(2020).
Embrace African pedagogies; Embrace new technologies; invent
new ones
Kizito, R. N. (2016); Ng'ambi,
D. (2013).
IGNOU, OU-UK;BOU: AIOU; OUC; “It's all systems go for Unisa's
online examinations”: spread this to the rest of the continent &
globally
Goosen, L., & van Heerden,
(2018):

11. REVISITING “LEARNING ACTIVITY DESIGN” BEYOND EMERGENCY REMOTE
TEACHING ( ERT)
“the opportunity in the alternative route is a deliberate fusion
of physical and digital learning with purposefully chosen
education technologies designed to enhance the quality of
learning (not just to store documents). This requires both
careful technology choices and a proactive approach to
learning design.
Philippa Hardman, University World News, 3 October, 2020

12. REVISITING “LEARNING ACTIVITY DESIGN” BEYOND EMERGENCY REMOTE
TEACHING ( ERT)
Conventional
Pedagogies
• Constructivism
• Problem-based
learning
• Resource-based
learning
• Cognitivism
• Behaviourism
The new normal
requires
• Experimentation and
exploration
• Rethinking of how
learning is best
realized in current
contexts “as
opposed to forcing
technology into the
service of existing
practices” ( Weller,
2020).
Pedagogies in a
digital, networked
context
• Connectivism
• Rhizomatic learning
• Pedagogy of
abundance
• Open pedagogy
Siemens (2005);
Downes & Siemens
(2008) ;
Kop (2011) ;
Cormier (2008); Wiley, (2013);
Weller (2020)
MOOC
generation

13. REVISITING “LEARNING ACTIVITY DESIGN” BEYOND EMERGENCY REMOTE
TEACHING ( ERT)
Centre for Learning, Teaching and
Development, University of the
Witwatersrand, 2020
COURSE DESIGN FRAMEWORK

14. REVISITING “LEARNING ACTIVITY DESIGN” BEYOND EMERGENCY REMOTE
TEACHING ( ERT) - possible futures
Connectivism revisited Humanising Pedagogy
• Self-directed learning:
autonomous learners
• Presence : a voice
• Critical literacies: so that
staff and students can
function in the new digital
environment
• Students and
teachers as agents
of change
• Voice routed in own
stories and experiences
• Community formation
both in place and in
memory
Siemens (2005); Kop (2011) Zinn, D., & Rodgers, C. (2012)

15. Evangelical, uncritical
adoption of ed –tech related
to commercialization,
commodification, and
massification of education.
Critical and
skeptical
approaches
Issues of privacy and data intrusion,
social impact, and digital
polarization
Selwyn (2014). Weller (2020)

16. Cormier, D. (2008b, June 3). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum [Blog post].
Retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-
community-as-curriculum/
Downes, S., & Siemens, G. (2008). CCK08: The distributed course [Online course: MOOC].
Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/themoocguide/3-cck08---the-
distributed-course
Goosen, L., & van Heerden, D. (2018). Assessment of students in higher education—information
and communication technology tools and tips. Progressio, 40(1), 1-23.
Hardman, P (2020 ) Universities need strategic investment in Learning design Philippa Hardman,
University World News, 3 October, 2020
Kizito, R. N. (2016). Connectivism in learning activity design: Implications for pedagogically-
based technology adoption in African higher education contexts. International Review
of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(2), 19-39.
Kop, R. (2011). The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: Learning
experiences during a massive open online course. The International Review of
Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12(3), 19–
38. http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v12i3.882
Letseka, M. ( 2020) The Role and Activities of the UNESCO Chair on ODL at Unisa” to colleagues
at the Botswana Open University - BOU.
Letseka, M. (2020). Stimulating ODL research at UNISA: exploring the role and potential impact
of the UNESCO Chair. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 1-
16.
Letseka, M., Letseka, M. M., & Pitsoe, V. (2018). The challenges of e-Learning in South
Africa. Trends in E-learning, 121-138.
Maphosa, C., & Bhebhe, S. (2020). INTERROGATING THE CONCEPT ‘OPENNESS’IN OPEN
DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL). European Journal of Open Education and E-learning
Studies, 5(2).
Ng'ambi, D. (2013). Effective and ineffective uses of emerging technologies: Towards a
transformative pedagogical model. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(4),
652-661.
Ngubane-Mokiwa, S. A. (2017). Implications of the University of South Africa's (UNISA) shift
to open distance e-learning on teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher
Education, 42(9), 7.
Satar, A. A. (2019). Innovative Strategies for Creating Inclusive Spaces for Hearing-Impaired
and Visually Impaired Students in an Open Distance And e-Learning (ODeL)
Environment: A Case Study of the University of South Africa (Unisa). In Strategies for
Facilitating Inclusive Campuses in Higher Education: International Perspectives on
Equity and Inclusion. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved
from http://er.dut.ac.za/bitstream/handle/123456789/69/Siemens_2005_Connectiv
ism_A_learning_theory_for_the_digital_age.pdf
Weller, M. (2020). 25 years of ed tech. Athabasca University, AU Press.
https://doi.org/10.15215/ aupress/9781771993050.01
Wiley, D. (2013, October 21). What is open pedagogy? [Blog post]. Retrieved
from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975
Willis, J. E., Slade, S., & Prinsloo, P. (2016). Ethical oversight of student data in learning
analytics: a typology derived from a cross-continental, cross-institutional
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REFERENCES