Upcoming events

Featured

20 February 2024: Soft skills the Missing Component  in Higher Education?

Featured

Date and Time: Tuesday, 20th February 2024: 15:00 – 16:00 SAST : 16:00 – 17:00 EAT

Leading the Session: Dr. Esther Gacicio, Edtech Consultant & CEO of eLearning Solutions (eLS) 

To join this session please sign up via Zoom here 

Description of the session:  

This session will look at the importance of  integrating soft skills in higher education to ensure graduates are thoroughly equipped for the labour market. 

What does the course entail and its deployment and accreditations from Kenyan universities.

Many young individuals, despite their academic achievements, find it challenging to excel in real world situations. They lack the essential soft skills that employers and life demand. To unlock this potential https://elsat.elearningsolutions.co.ke/ created the 21st Century soft skills program targeting Tertiary Institutions including Universities in Kenya.

Lead Bio:  

Dr.Esther Gacicio is an Edtech Consultant & Co-Founder and CEO of eLearning Solutions (eLS) (www.elearningsolutions.co.ke; www.elsat.elearningsolutions.co.ke ), a company leveraging on digital technology to design, deliver and deploy learning and training solutions, across the spectrum; to the youth, institutions and corporates. Dr. Esther Gacicio is an Edtech Consultant & Co-Founder and CEO of eLearning Solutions (eLS), a company leveraging on digital technology to design, deliver and deploy learning and training solutions, across the spectrum; to the youth, institutions and corporates. She is a member of the Specialist Network of the EDTEch Hub. GIZ Sports for Development Course, Siemens-Stiftung “How to become a paramedic” course, AUCDC Surveillance course, STEP Ethiopia project and most recently, the ELSAT Hub 21st Century Soft-Skills Course

Dr. Gacicio previously served as a Senior Assistant Director at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).  Dr. Gacicio was recognized for being the best PhD student (Thesis), Faculty of Education,2021/2022 academic year at the University of Nairobi. She led ELS to receive “Most Preferred MOOCS Solution” of the Year Award 2021 at the Kenya EdTech Summit and Awards inKenya. She was awarded the Excellence in eLearning Award at the World Education Global Awards  2015 in Mumbai, India. She was also a finalist for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2017/2018 a program ran by Royal Academy of Engineering United Kingdom and the subsequent Pitch@Palace under the patronage of HRH The Duke of York, KG in 2018 as well as awarded the Technology in Government in Africa Awards (TIGA) in May, 2011.

Dr. Gacicio is currently serving as a Director in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) board since June 2020. She serves as a Board Member and currently the Chair of the Finance and General Purpose committee of the Technical and Finance and General Purposes committees. 

14 March 2024:  The need for critical responses to AI within and by Higher Education

Featured

To join this session please register via Zoom here

Date and Time: Thursday 14th March 2024, 3:00pm – 4:30pm SAST

Description of the session: 

Join our upcoming webinar that delves deep into the transformative impact of AI on higher education. In an era where AI, including advanced language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can swiftly produce assessments, sparking questions about the future of universities, our panel of experts will explore this crucial intersection. The first set of speakers, Neil Kramm and Associate Professor Mags Blackie, will discuss how AI challenges conventional views of higher education and assessment, urging us to rethink its purpose beyond mere credentialing. Meanwhile, Dr. Nicola Pallitt and Sioux McKenna will examine universities’ role in shaping the societal implications of AI and the necessity of fostering critical AI literacy among students. Join us to engage in thought-provoking discussions on the evolving relationship between AI and higher education, from assessment practices to broader societal impact, as we collectively navigate this AI-infused educational landscape.

Panellists:  

Professor Sioux McKenna is the Director of the Centre for Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes University where she also manages a nationally funded PhD programme and a number of internationally funded projects. Her interest in postgraduate studies includes a concern with how nations build postgraduate numbers with retention and throughput.

Mags Blackie is an associate professor in the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning. She holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cape Town and a PhD in education from Stellenbosch University. Her main research interest is in tertiary science education.

Dr Nicola Pallitt supports academics to use technologies effectively for teaching and learning. She supervises postgraduate students and co-teaches on formal courses and professional development offerings in Higher Education. She values contextual and culturally responsive approaches to learning design and educational technology usage. 

She seeks to expand critical perspectives on educational technologies in Higher Education.

Neil Kramm is part of the EdTech team in the Centre of Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University and has been working with educational technology since 2015 in a teaching and development function that served both students and academic staff. Neil is a researcher on educational technology focusing on Artificial Intelligence in higher education, assessment and research working on a PhD in AI and how it will change assessment in Higher Education.For more information and sign-up here

Facilitating Online Course in 2023

Featured

This year the Facilitating Online course ran three well attended course cohorts and we are now open for registration for our 2023 cohorts. The dates for all four 2023 cohorts are the following:

16 Oct – 08 December 2023 (Apply by 6th October 2023)

Please apply here

About the course

Facilitating Online provides a solid foundation for facilitating online events and courses. It is registered as a short course at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Facilitating Online was developed by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at UCT and is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of its support for the e/merge Africa network. It is convened by Tony Carr and co-facilitated by facilitators from across Africa.

We consider applications in the order in which they arrive so earlier applications stand a higher chance of being accepted

Recommendations by participants

“I learned many facilitation skills that I am now able to apply with my own students. I would recommend the course highly to anyone embarking on the online teaching and learning journey.”
Dr Judith McKenzie, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town.

“This course doesn’t just teach you ABOUT online Facilitation, it actually gets you to facilitate … It’s a real opportunity to learn and develop. And what’s more? It has an African taste…”
Daniel Adeboye, Online Maths Tutor, Tutor for the Future

Continue reading

7 February 2024: Toward the Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education:A data justice framework & early lessons in practical implementation

To join this session please register via Zoom here

Date and Time: Wednesday, 7th February 2024: 10:00am – 11:00am SAST;  7:00pm Melbourne Australia

Presenter: 

Dr Katya Pechenkina, Cultural Anthropologist, Teaching and Learning scholar, and award-winning lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Session Description: 

Drawing on scholarship dedicated to data justice and ethics of care, this presentation seeks to answer urgent questions associated with the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education (HE). We will look at how AI can be used in HE for good, how can this rapidly growing industry be regulated, and what would a conceptual framework for data justice and fair usage of AI in HE look like?

Practical lessons from designing AI guidelines to empower educators in HE (and beyond) are shared.

Presenter Bio: 

Katya Pechenkina is a cultural anthropologist, Teaching and Learning scholar, and award-winning lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. Her research focuses on impact and evaluation in education, as well as on understanding how educators and students experience technological change. More info about her here

Resources

Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0363 

Examples of AI use in assessments

https://aipedagogy.org/ – an evolving collection of curated assignments that integrate genAI tools from educators around the world.

Examples to safeguard against AI in high-stakes summative assessments

https://trefnycenter.mines.edu/effective-teaching-and-generative-ai/ – ideas for (re)designing assessments that encourage critical engagement with AI, and ideas for re(designing) assignments to be more human-centred.

https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/how-can-i-update-assessments-to-deal-with-chatgpt-and-other-generative-ai/ – How can I update assessments to deal with ChatGPT and other generative AI? 

8 February 2024: Learning Methods Out of School: Blogs, Webinars, and Courses for Practicing Researchers

Date and Time: Thursday, 8th February 2024, 14:00 – 15:30 SAST

Session Description:

Join us for this panel discussion with: Dr. Janet Salmons, SAGE Publications (US), Dr. Nicola Pallitt, Rhodes University (South Africa), Andy Nobes, INASP (UK) and Tony Carr, e/merge Africa / University of Cape Town (South Africa).

Researchers need to keep learning new approaches in order to study a changing world. How can we keep learning once we have completed our degrees and are busy with our careers? We go online, of course! In this webinar we will discuss the kinds of opportunities and resources available for new and experienced researchers who want to sharpen skills and develop new ones. This webinar will be valuable to researchers, as well as to those who want to offer information, consultation, or learning opportunities to others.

Please join us by signing up via Zoom here

Resources:

6 Ways to Teach and Learn Methods with Videos: http://tinyurl.com/3zzt82h7

Panellists Bios:  

Dr. Janet Salmons is a free-range scholar and methodologist. She serves as the Research Community Manager for SAGE Publications’ research community, www.MethodSpace.com. Recent books include: Doing Qualitative Research Online 2nd edition (2022), What Kind of Researcher Are You? (2021). She will be a fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies in 2024.

She seeks to expand critical perspectives on educational technologies in Higher Education.

Dr Nicola Pallitt supports academics to use technologies effectively for teaching and learning. She supervises postgraduate students and co-teaches on formal courses and professional development offerings in Higher Education. She values contextual and culturally responsive approaches to learning design and educational technology usage.

Andy Nobes  Joined INASP in January 2014. His work is focused on helping researchers develop their research writing and communication skills through online resources, courses, mentoring and peer learning. He currently manages the AuthorAID website and has been instrumental in the development of the AuthorAID online courses in research writing and proposal writing, which have evolved into Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Andy has also been involved in training journal editors in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka in digital publishing practices.  He previously worked for an academic publisher in journal e-marketing and library marketing.

Tony Carr is an Educational Technologist in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at University of Cape Town and the convenor of e/merge Africa. His professional interests include online conference design, online facilitation and online professional development networks.