In respect of the COVID-19 outbreak, the University of Pretoria plans to continue teaching online until further notice if it is not possible to be on campus (see the Amended UP Calendar). The University is committed to ensuring that all our students complete their academic year successfully. Student success remains a priority. To facilitate this, it is essential that you keep on teaching ONLINE! Be virtually present and available in different modes during scheduled class times to discuss difficult concepts and answer questions. 

Keep on teaching and continue with assessments! 

UP introduced a flipped-learning methodology which requires students to prepare thoroughly for class, complete pre-class assessments and engage in class. This model articulates well with online teaching and learning as it requires lecturers and students to use their online clickUP courses and encourages students to prepare independently for each class.

Guiding documents:

Remote Teaching The UP Way	Alternative & Online Assessment

PREPARE before class: At the very least, the Study Guide and your clickUP module should stipulate a clear, weekly work schedule so that students can keep up independently. Quality instruction requires students to come to class prepared, as this enables new teaching to build actively on existing knowledge. Students can prepare for the class using traditional textbooks, eTextbooks, PDF & Word files, videos or publishers learning systems For more information about creating your own videos, click here. For YouTube videos URLs to be zero-rated please see the guidelines.

Assess before class: Students’ preparedness for each class should be assessed before the online class. These assessments provide valuable information to a lecturer that can be used during online sessions to address misconceptions. For more information about existing UP online assessment options, click here. 

ENGAGE during scheduled class time: Keep on teaching! Be present and available in different modes during regular scheduled class time to discuss difficult concepts and answer questions, e.g. a 20 minutes Collaborate session, 20 minutes online discussions in clickUP, and 20 minutes emails and phone calls. This will keep students on track and make them feel safe! 

• Use the Discussion Tool in clickUP to create a discussion forum in clickUP. Inform students to use this space to post questions and provide answers to their questions there.
• Use Blackboard Collaborate in clickUP to be virtually available during scheduled classes (you have to schedule these virtual classes in clickUP) (see video).

CONSOLIDATE & ASSESS after class: Blackboard Collaborate also provides the opportunity to record sessions and share recording links with students (see video). These videos could be made available to students in clickUP and used for remedial and revision purposes. Assignments and assessments after class provide further opportunities for students to consolidate their knowledge and organise it into meaningful hierarchical patterns. 

Teaching and learning continuity plans:

• Teaching Continuity: COVID-19 (lecturers)
• Learning Continuity: COVID-19 (students)

Online courses

• Online clickUP course: Online self-paced courses for lecturers who want to learn how to use clickUP more effectively. Lecturers can enrol for these courses by clicking on this link. (For more information contact Detken Scheepers.):
  1. Overview & Creating Course Navigation
  2. clickUP Content
  3. Narrated PowerPoints
  4. Interactive Video and Content
  5. clickUP Assessment
  6. Turnitin
  7. Turnitin Grading and Feedback
  8. Grade Centre
  9. Group & Collaboration Tools
  10. Blackboard Collaborate
  11. Metrical

• Online professional development courses: The Education Consultancy Unit provides institution-wide priority courses to enhance teaching, learning and assessment. (For more information regarding the courses, please contact Dr Sanet Haupt and/or download the document: Teaching, learning, assessment & curriculum training. Please register in the UP portal Human Capital Management System (HCM) Portlet (click here):
  1. Learning Theories in the Digital Age
  2. Inquiry-based Learning (IBL)
  3. Video as a Tool for Student Engagement
  4. Open Educational Resources (OER)
  5. Curriculum Transformation
  6. Developing Study Guides
  7. Designing Accountable Assessment
  8. Design Rubrics
  9. Design Objective Assessments

• Online module for tutors: To ensure that tutors know how to use clickUP tools (quizzes, discussion tool, and Collaborate) they have to complete an online course using the self-enrol link (first sign in to clickUP, then click the link). The course takes about 2 hours to complete. Upon successful completion of the online course, tutors receive a letter of participation. It will take them about 2 hours. Upon successful completion of the online course, tutors will receive a letter of participation. Download the Tutoring Continuity Plan - The UP Way.

Support & Self-help

The clickUP help site and Blackboard help site contain many resources on how to use all the above-mentioned tools. You may also contact the e-support office, but the response time might be slower during this period due to high volumes of requests. There is also a team of dedicated instructional designers and educational consultants that will support you. You can also visit the Department for Education Innovation’s (EI) website for the latest updates: https://www.up.ac.za/education-innovation 

• Academic staff who are new to online instruction or clickUP (Blackboard Learn), can consult the quick start guide.
• The clickUP lecturer help site provides comprehensive guidelines on the use of the system. 
• Students can go to the clickUP self-help website if they do not know how to use the UP Portal, student emails, clickUP tools or Turnitin.
• Students can download the Self-help Manual if they do not know how to use the UP Portal, student emails, clickUP tools or Turnitin.

• Educational consultants can advise you on: 
  • Learning design 
  • Didactically sound hybrid teaching and learning 
  • Alternative assessment
  • Curriculum
  • Open educational resources (OERs)
• Instructional designers can advise you on:
  • eLearning and hybrid learning
  • clickUP
  • Online assessment: QuestUP, clickUP, Turnitin, Respondus
  • In-video assessment

Open educational resources (OER) 

One of the most important and basic requirements for student success is to ensure that all students have access to essential course materials. It is therefore essential to promote the use of free material. Download the UP Open educational resources (OER) guidelines. We want to invite all UP lecturers to apply for the Open Educational Resources (OER) Grants 2020. We have thirty grants available for UP lecturers, and each grant is worth a maximum of R10 000. We will consider grant applications up to the close of business on 15 May 2020. To apply, lecturers are required to access the necessary information here: https://tinyurl.com/ydhkdo7v. Contact Dr Marius Pienaar or Dr Sanet Haupt. 

Study guide templates

The IT Department activated Google Meet Premium for both staff (up.ac.za) and students (tuks.up.ac.za) domains until the end of September. Google Hangouts Meet (premium) supports up to 250 active participants but also 100,000 live stream viewers. It also has a recording facility. For more information please go to https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9308630?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en. This is a great way to record a meeting (the recording will automatically be sent to your email directly after the meeting). Google Meet Premium sessions and their recordings are zero-rated. To make it easier to use, Google added the "Meet" option to there Gmail toolbar on the left bottom of the Gmail screen. Please note that the IT Department supports all Google tools.

For more information about new 2020 teaching and learning technologies, click here.