Teaching and learning in the context of the pandemic

It is evident that the 2021 academic year will require the University to pivot to remote teaching and learning, at any stage, depending on the lockdown level. The general guideline for undergraduate class attendance under the different lockdown levels are as follows (depending on the faculty and the module - please consult your lecturer):

• No lockdown level: Teaching continues as normal as described in the following guidelines for lecturers - TEACH & LEARN The UP Way 2021

• Levels 1 & 2: Allow specific cohorts of students to return to campus but limit the number of students allowed in a classroom because of the social distancing requirements. In the cases where the class sizes exceed the number of students which are allowed in a class as prescribed by the lockdown regulations, students could be divided into smaller groups and attend classes on a rotation basis. To accommodate the other remote students, the classes should be broadcast live and recorded for later viewing. See the guidelines for lecturers: TEACH & LEARN The UP Way 2021 & Alternative and Online Assessment The UP Way 2021.

• Levels 3-5: Teaching continues mainly online as described in the guidelines for lecturers: REMOTE TEACHING The UP Way (COVID-19: 2021)  & Alternative and Online Assessment The UP Way 2021.

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 lecturers keep on teaching during scheduled class times to discuss difficult concepts and answer questions. 

UP introduced a flipped-learning methodology which requires students to prepare thoroughly for class, complete pre-class assessments and engages 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. If you need help, please contact EI Support.

Study guide templates

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. 

• 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.

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 2021. We have thirty grants available for UP lecturers, and each grant is worth a maximum of R10 000. To apply, lecturers are required to access the necessary information here: https://tinyurl.com/ydhkdo7v. Contact Dr Marius Pienaar or Dr Sanet Haupt.

TEACH & LEARN The UP Way 2021

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 contact or virtual sessions to address misconceptions. 

ENGAGE during scheduled class time: Keep on teaching during regular scheduled class time to discuss difficult concepts and answer questions (contact or virtually - depending on the lockdown level). 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)

UP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grants 2021

All UP academic staff are invited to apply for a grant to undertake research into the teaching of your discipline with the aim of developing your teaching and research capacity and improving student learning and success. The funds are part of the University of Pretoria’s Teaching Development Grant provided by the Department of Higher Education and Training. We have a number of one-year grants available for UP lecturers worth a maximum of R30 000 each. The purpose of the grant is to promote institutional research to improve teaching and student learning and success. Applications by individuals and teams will be considered on merit:

• Call for applications (Applications close on 1 March 2021)
• Application form
• Report template (Complete before 10 December 2021)