Learning and Teaching - At The University Of The Western Cape

THE FOUR KEY PRIORITIES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ARE: Excellence and student success and retention; Research-led learning and teaching; Learning with technology (emerging technologies); and, Transformation and renewal of the curriculum. The university has invested in many support programmes and innovative interventions to enhance academic success.

Student Support

A total of 795 first-year students joined the First-Year Transition Programme in 2022, a mentoring programme that helps students transition to university life with the support of mentors who are senior students from the same faculty.

The Accelerated Excellence Programme (AEP) provides high-performing second-year students with essential skills for the changing world of work. Learning modules on presentation skills, interview techniques and CV development, entrepreneurship and community development and leadership skills are presented in monthly lunch-time meetings and four quarterly weekend residential sessions.

The Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA) Programme involves postgraduate students working under the guidance of a lecturer, senior lecturer or head of programme to assist these academics in undergraduate module delivery, encompassing the whole planning cycle of learning, teaching and assessment. GTAs are attached to a particular lecturer and attend lectures for the module, arrange and oversee the tutorial programme and assist with the marking of assignments.

MIGRATION AND MOBILITIES INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLECTIVE IN AFRICA (MMICA)

Migration and mobilities refer to the contemporary and historical movement of people, as well as to the circulation of ideas, objects and capital associated with this mobility. UWC’s Migration and Mobilities Interdisciplinary Collective in Africa (MMICA) was established in 2019 in the Office of the DVC (Academic) to promote critical approaches in research and further collaboration on this topic. The aim is to build an academic Centre for the Study of Migration and Mobilities at UWC to focus on the contemporary issues and global concerns in the field of migration studies and promote a new generation of South African and African academics to do research internationally that provides an African perspective.

ZONELEARNING@UWC

Styled as an experiential learning and incubation space for students, the ZoneLearning@UWC Programme integrates academic learning and community engagement through developing socially responsive graduates who can drive entrepreneurial activities in their communities. The model that was developed by Ryerson University in Canada was adopted by UWC after it signed an MOU with Ryerson to allow the model to be used to infuse entrepreneurial thinking in undergraduate studies. Zone learning has been implemented at the Economic and Management Sciences (EMS), Law and Arts faculties and consists of four clinics:

• Green Incubator – focuses on the green economy and sustainable development. The first 30 students are completing an incubation programme funded by BankSETA.

• Small Business Clinic – undergraduate students from the EMS Faculty work with community members to help them start businesses.

• Entrepreneurial Law Clinic – focuses on the legal aspects of running a small business and assists students in the programme as well as community members to start and register their businesses.

• New and Transmedia Clinic – focuses on telling the stories of students and communities surrounding UWC. The clinic offers a continuous education course, Transmedia for the Creative Economy, that equips participants with skills to ‘translate’ highly technical research accessible to lay persons and share it on public platforms to reach a broader audience.

CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (CIECT)

The CIECT team offered interactive training workshops in 2022 that focused on the use of various eTools and assessment activities as well as Google Applications (GAPPS). The team presented customised departmental workshops for specific staff members: 80 online workshops were conducted in 2022 and attended by 387 academics while 421 academics engaged in online consultations. An ‘eTools Kit for Tutors’ workshop was designed for tutors to engage in an online tutoring programme; 152 tutors accessed the workshop.

iKAMVA LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The CIECT manages iKamva, a platform that enables online learning for students and staff. iKamva provided invaluable support to the university community during the COVID-19 pandemic when much of the university’s academic programme was conducted virtually.

• 1 320 learning modules were uploaded on the system in 2021 and 1 294 modules in 2022.

• 2 368 students engaged in online student workshops on iKamva, Turnitin and GAPPS in 2022.

• The average user accesses iKamva three times daily.

• iKamva has a secure exams portal (that allows students to take tests remotely) and a marks accreditation system.

• Lecturers can access the anti-plagiarism Turnitin tool on the platform, generate reports on student work and provide relevant feedback to students.

• Thousands of students access digital media literacy training through iKamva.

• The platform is used to train staff in multimedia presentation and course design.