Date and time: Thursday 22 June 2023, 12:00 Noon -13:30 pm SAST
Session format: Interactive virtual book launch
Session outline:
This virtual book launch will introduce the book, share some of the chapters of the book showcasing collaborations in the context of undergraduate, postgraduate, research and community engagement, and provide space to talk to the authors about their experiences when collaborating with partners from different contexts.
There has been a recent surge of interest in the concept of co-teaching and co-research across institutions of HE locally and globally, as a response to limited international mobility due to COVID-19. In this book co-teaching and co-research is seen as teaching and research that connects educators and learners across different institutions and different contexts, be it across South Africa, Africa or the world. Our collective experiences have shown that co-teaching and co-research are not easy endeavours, especially when they involve differently positioned and differently resourced contexts, students and academics. While these collaborations are enriching and exciting, they need careful support, preparation and time for sustained relationship building – topics that we find are not necessarily discussed in the literature around co-teaching and co-research. This book is an attempt towards closing this gap in knowledge by providing a range of chapters documenting personal experiences of academics and practitioners engaging in co-teaching and co-research across the African continent and beyond, facilitated by various networked learning tools and technologies. Framed by a spirit of sharing and connection, the book provides insights into the benefits and challenges of such collaborations, affordances of technologies to bridge unequal divides, emerging practices of continental collaboration and beyond. Additionally, the book provides an unusually honest and nuanced view on co-teaching and co-research across contexts of inequalities, foregrounding relationship- and community-building rather than technology and emphasising the importance of sustained connection and reflection in these collaborations. Applying a wide range of critical theoretical frameworks, these evidence-based but also reflective and reflexive contributions are a unique and important reminder that behind and through our screens, we connect as humans who yearn to learn from each other, but also need to learn how to learn from each other, when we do not share the same world views.
Zifikile Phindile Shangase is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Free State, South Africa. She has over 10 years’ teaching, supervision and research experience in higher education. Technology is her current passion in the form of technology-enhanced learning, including blended learning and multimodal pedagogies that contribute towards innovative and interactive teaching, learning and assessment practices.
Daniela Gachago is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Innovation in Learning at Teaching at the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on academic staff development to transform teaching and learning in higher education, with a particular focus on socially just pedagogies such as digital storytelling. She is also interested in innovative course and curriculum design drawing from co-creative approaches such as design thinking.
Eunice Ndeto Ivala is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovative Educational Technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) located in Cape Town, South Africa. Eunice is passionate about staff development into mainstreaming technology in learning and teaching, and her training philosophy is informed by design-based research, design thinking, participatory methods, reflective and reflexive pedagogies. Her research focus is on information and communication technology (ICT)– mediated teaching and learning in developing contexts.
Presenter: Ahmed Mohsen Mohamed Madi, PhD in Education, specializing in Education Technology
Session outline:
This workshop discusses the basics of digital marketing for e-learning products, how to promote them, and what are the market impacts on this industry
Presenter Bio:
Ahmed Mohsen Mohamed Madi holds a Ph.D. in Education, specializing in Education Technology Experienced instructional designer for over 14 years. He holds a PhD in Education Technology, Faculty of Specific Education, Ain Shams University. He holds a PMP certification from the American Project Management Institute (PMI). Google Project Manager Certificate.Trainer and lecturer at the Information Technology Institute (ITI) of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. An instructional designer at a junior gun company. Participation in the production and management of several e-learning projects in Egypt and the Arab world. Providing various technical consultations to work teams and electronic content production companies.
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:
24 April – 16 June 2023 (Apply by 17th April 2023)
24 July – 15 September 2023 (Apply by 30th June 2023)
16 Oct – 08 December 2023 (Apply by 22nd September 2023)
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
Date and Time: Tuesday, 21 April: 15:00 – 17:00 SAST
Description of the session:
This workshop is designed to provoke colleagues to dream, scheme and plan together for the post pandemic future. We will use a range of facilitation processes to unleash the best thinking and creativity in the room about issues such as
the metaphors for our journeys through the pandemic,
our learning that transfers to the post-pandemic future,
structural changes needed in our institutions,
how to ensure that our institutions carry forward lessons from the pandemic, and
how to construct better blended lives.
Much of the workshop will take place in parallel breakouts on specific questions where participants can choose which room to join.
Session Facilitator:
Tony Carr is an Educational Technologist in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at University of Cape Town and convenor of e/merge Africa.
Are you an educational technology user working in African higher education? Educational technology usage in African higher education has been changing for a while now, and even more so since the pandemic. Completing the e/merge Africa-IRCEES survey is a powerful act of participation in growing e-learning capacity across our continent. We need your help with this. The results will help us to design online opportunities aligned with your needs and suited to our African contexts. This survey should take between 15-30 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey HERE.
