The Facilitation and Support of a Blended e-Learning Course for Science Educators in a Rural Setting, South Africa
Keywords:
blended- learning, self-directed learning, professional development, facilitation and online supportAbstract
This paper presents the findings of both qualitative and quantitative case study research of the implementation of a blended eLearning course for Science educators in the Eastern Cape, Mthatha. The Centre for Innovative Educational and Communication Technologies (CIECT) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) designed and developed a course, namely: “Designing an Instructional Eventâ€, registered with the South African Quality Authority (SAQA) at a National Qualification Framework (NQF), Level 6. This course was offered in collaboration with the Education Faculty, for the Bachelor of Education (Honours) (BEd Hons) Programme; specifically Science Education. The researchers highlight the importance of the provision of extensive facilitation and support by the CIECT team, in order to motivate the educators (full-time working professionals) to become self-directed learners. In this case, the educators were expected to complete activities; and design an online environment to enhance their Science instruction. Considerable challenges were faced by the facilitators and educators due to limited infrastructure; and a lack of commitment by some participants to commit to the completion of tasks.
References
Binghimlas, K. A, “Barriers to the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning: A Review of Literatureâ€, Eurosia Journal of Matematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 235-245, 2009.
Center for Technology in Learning, U.S. Department of Education, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studiesâ€, 2010.
Department of Education, White Paper on e-Education. Transforming Learning and Teaching through Information and Communication Technologies. Pretoria: South Africa, 2003.
Department of Education-learning Africa Report, “The e-learning Africa Report 2012â€. Available at: http://www.elearning-africa.com/report2012.
Ferrari, A., Cachia, R. and Punie, Y “ICT as a driver for creative learning and innovative teaching, pp. 345-367 in Measuring Creativityâ€, in Proceedings for the conference “Can creativity be measured?†Brussels, May 28-29, 2009, Edited by Ernesto Villalba, EUR 24033 EN, 2009.
Harwell, S. H, “Teacher Professional Development: It’s Not an Event; it’s a Process,†Unpublished thesis. Available at: http://www.cord.org/uploadedfiles/HarwellPaper.pdf, 2003.
Herselman, M. and Britton, K.G, “Analysing the role of ICT in bridging the digital divide amongst learnersâ€, South African Journal of Education, Vol. 22,no.4, pp. 270-74,2002.
Hennessey’s., Onguko, B., Harrison, D., A, E.K., Namalefe, S., Azra Naseem. and Wamakote, L (Eds.), “ Developing use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning in East African schools: A review of the literature†Cambridge, UK and Dar es salaam, Tanzania: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development - Eastern Africa, 2010.
infoDev, “Essay II ICT in School Education (Primary and Secondary)â€, Available: http://www.infodev.org/infodev-files/resource/InfodevDocuments_1016.pdf, 2010.
James, T, “Towards a Better Understanding of the ICT Sector in South Africa: Problems and Opportunities for Strengthening the Existing Knowledge Baseâ€, Tina James Consulting, u.d.
Ley, K., “Motivating the distant learner to be a self-directed learnerâ€, paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Available: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/04_1395.pdf, downloaded October 10, 2006, 2004.
Luca, J. and Tarricone, P, “Does emotional intelligence affect successful teamwork?â€, in Proceedings of the 18 th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education at the ASCILITE, pp. 367 – 376, 2001.
Marshall, J. M, “Learning with Technology Evidence that technology can, and does, support learning. A white paper prepared for Cable in the Classroomâ€. Available: http://www.dcmp.org/caai/nadh176.pdf, 2002.
Marold, K., and Haga, W, “The emerging profile of the on-line learner: Relating course performance with protests, GPA, and other measures of achievement, in proceedings of the Information Resource Management Association (IRMA) Conference ,pp. 248-251, 2003.
Mdlongwa, T, “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a Means of Enhancing Education in Schools in South Africa: Challenges, Benefits and Recommendationsâ€, Available: http://www.ai.org.za/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/10/No.-80.-ICTas-a-means-of-enhancing-Education-in-Schools-in-South-Africa.pdf, 2012.
Miliszewska, I, “Is It Fully ‘On’ or Partly ‘Off’? The Case of Fully-Online Provision of Transnational Educationâ€, Journal of Information Technology Education, Vol.6, 2007.
Ndlovu, N.S and Lawrence, D, “The quality of ICT use in South African classroomsâ€. University of the Witwatersrand, Wits School of Educationâ€, Towards CarnegieIIIâ€conference held at the University of Cape Town from to7September012, 2012.
New Zealand Curriculum, “New Zealand Curriculum Updateâ€, Issue 9 June 2011â€, Available: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/curriculum_updates, 2011.
North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL) Report, Available: http://www.ncrel.org/tplan/cbtl/toc.htm.
Prinsloo, E, “Working towards inclusive education in South African classroomsâ€, South African Journal of Education, vol. 21,no. 4, pp. 344–348, 2006.
South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), “The Use of Computers in Schoolsâ€, Available: www. saide.org.za, 2010.
Shackelford, J. L.O. and Maxwell, M, “Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education: Contribution of Learner to Learner Interactionâ€, International review of research in open and distance learning, Vol.13, no.4, 2012.
Sims, R., Dobbs, G. and Hand, T, “Enhancing Quality in Online Learning: Scaffolding Planning and Design through Proactive Evaluationâ€, Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, in Distance Education, Vol. 23, no.2, 2002.
Steyn, T, “Implementing continuing professional teacher development: policy and practice, acta academica, Vol 43, 2011.
South Africa, “The National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africaâ€, Government Gazette, No. 29832, 2007.
Trucano, M, “Developing ICT Skills in African Teachers. Published on Edutech, Available: http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/developing-ict-skills-in-african-teachers, 2012.
Wholey, J. S., Hatry, H.P. and Newcomer, K. E (eds), Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation, (Jossey-Bass), USA, 2010.
Van Der Stuyf, R. R, “Scaffolding as a teaching strategy. Adolescent Learning and Developmentâ€, Section 0500A, 2002.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
- Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal published by any other publisher.
- It is also the authors responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular source are submitted with the necessary approval.
- The authors warrant that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required.
- The authors ensure that all the references carefully and they are accurate in the text as well as in the list of references (and vice versa).
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.