The E-Education Group at the University of Pretoria (UP) recently received an Anthology Catalyst Award for Training & Professional Development, recognising its exceptional contributions to education. The international Catalyst Awards celebrate excellence and innovation, and acknowledge institutions that demonstrate an organisation-wide commitment to innovative training and development programmes for educators and staff.

UP was announced as one of the winners at an awards ceremony and luncheon during the Anthology Together conference in Orlando, Florida in the US.

“When I received the news about the Anthology Catalyst Award for Training & Professional Development, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude,” says Professor Gerrit Stols, Director of Education Innovation in UP’s Department for Education Innovation. “This recognition is evidence of the hard work and dedication of the entire E-Education Group. It reinforces our commitment to excellence and innovation in e-education and professional development.

UP’s Department of Education Innovation fosters teaching excellence and supports the pedagogical development of staff in an effort to create innovative educational environments that enhance student learning. The department conducts workshops across the institution and prioritises courses to advance hybrid teaching, learning and assessment approaches. The E-Education Group focuses on change management, professional development and innovative leadership to build capacity for implementing a hybrid approach.

“I am proud of the team at the Department of Education Innovation,” said Prof Loretta Feris, Vice-Principal: Academic at UP. “The award demonstrates the commitment of UP’s professional and academic staff to support student success".

Ultra implementation

Having partnered with EdTech organisation Anthology for over 26 years, UP has played a significant role in developing the Ultra platform. The E-Education Group’s receipt of the Anthology award highlights the successful alignment of the University’s goals with the phased implementation of Ultra.

The clickUP Ultra implementation is supported by a data-driven strategy to develop and enhance innovative pedagogical training courses, assisting lecturers to reimagine their course designs. Integrated into the University’s staff development programmes, Ultra training utilises recognised educational theories and evidence-based practices. This approach has led to higher adoption rates than anticipated, and improved student experience and instructor engagement, even during the initial campus closures. The successful implementation of Ultra has national strategic importance as other universities may gain from UP’s implementation.

The phased implementation of Ultra started in July 2023 with 14 lecturers. The subsequent phase aimed to incorporate Ultra into all first-year courses in 2024 to transition these courses to the Ultra platform. The second phase of training, which targeted primarily first-year lecturers but also included other staff members, involved 54 courses from September 2023 to June 2024. This initiative led to the creation of an additional 72 Ultra courses, effectively bridging the adoption gap for UP.

“These five days of training were incredible,” said one staff member shared. “It was fantastic to see such a cohesive team of trainers who support each other so effectively. I learned a great deal about the new clickUP and had the opportunity to reflect on my own practices.”

The E-Education training team will keep analysing feedback from UP lecturers to pinpoint improvement areas and explore new innovation opportunities. They are engaging with Anthology’s community and contributing ideas to enhance learning management systems (LMS). Despite the significant effort required to manage regular monthly changes and updates, the team is excited about the new developments and improvements in the system.

The team is seeking collaborations with other universities. It has received a request from a university of technology to deliver Ultra staff development courses, and recently conducted successful training sessions at the Vaal University of Technology. The feedback from staff at this institution was consistent with the positive response from UP academic staff.