Keynote: Adopting new technology at high speed due to COVID 19

Luci Carosin

On the 15th of March 2020, President Cyril Ramaposa declared a national state of disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act. This was soon followed by various interventions by the National Command Council including lockdown regulations. The impact on the country, the economy and education in South Africa was enormous.

With the introduction of lockdown regulations, it made it impossible for the face-toface teaching to continue. Wits ICT realised that Wits would need to increase online offerings in the teaching and learning space to facilitate the shift from face-to-face teaching to online methods. To achieve this there were various aspects that needed attention. The software, infrastructure, and staffing aspects of the support in place at the time had various gaps that needed to be addressed urgently. This presentation looks at these gaps and the strategies applied to address them.

Speaker bio

I joined Wits as a student to study a BCom, BIS major. I had already become passionate about technology in high school and in my final year, I joined Wits as a part time staff member in the WBS. I later joined Wist ICT and have held a number of positions since then. My path meandered from support, through development and into management where I am today.

In my position as Senior Manager: Business Applications and Solutions I lead the team that supports the technical aspects of applications in various streams such as Finance, HR, Payroll and Student Administration. Support of Educational Technologies is also part of the team including such functions as supporting the LMS, tools it is integrated to and supporting student and staff use of these. I work closely with other Wits ICT Senior Managers to deliver on Wits ICT strategic objectives, but also work closely with different communities so they can achieve the academic goals of the University.