The purpose of this chapter is providing readers with an overview of the content promoting the growth of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the implications for information and communication technology (ICT) open distance e-learning (ODeL) students. Preparing students for the 4IR presents important and complicated opportunities towards changing higher education. Education should be about content design and delivery for teaching, learning, and assessment, with the profile of ODeL ICT students at the core. This chapter reports on issues, controversies, and problems arising from the 4IR. The mixed-method research approach adopted involved collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data obtained from first-year courses at a Southern Africa institution. The emerging picture cautions concerning students' real biographic information and digital literacy in a developing world context. The conclusion summarizes the content and informs instructors to examine their perceptions of student profiles regarding teaching, learning, and assessment in preparation for the 4IR.
Mobile digital literacy skills development as part of digital inclusion is compellingly relevant but exactly what the curriculum should contain is less evident. In this paper, we report on the development of a mobile digital literacy skills development curriculum for teachers using a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. The use of design science research for curriculum development is not common but appropriate where the relevance cycle ensured engagement with the needs of the community while the rigor cycle guided the evaluations by other stakeholders. The main contribution of this paper is the mobile digital literacy skills development curriculum as artifact. Furthermore, the paper provides insights gained on using the DSR methodology for community informatics research
The purpose of the chapter relates to providing perspectives on students' uptake of virtual learning environment (VLE) technologies in an information and communication technology (ICT) module taught in an open and distance e-learning (ODeL) environment. With the aim of helping students to access the assessment and support provided via the VLE, possibly improving the pass rate of the module, it provides readers with an overview and summary of the content of this chapter. Examples of how concepts are formulated within the theoretical and conceptual framework are provided. The chapter also includes a literature review on research into students' uptake of VLE technologies, to increase pass rates, in some cases in ODeL environments. The methodology adopted a non-experimental quantitative research design. The data collection instrument was a survey. Before concluding, solutions and results are presented, together with recommendations regarding improving implementing VLE technologies for an ICT module in an ODeL environment.
The aim of this research project relates to assessment approaches at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The Learning Management System is used to address students’ first-year experience in an Information and Communication Technology Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) context. In this study a socio-critical model was suggested as a framework for improving student success in ODeL at UNISA, and constructivist instructional strategies to e-learning were applied in a case study of a web development course. A mixed-method research approach was adopted, which involved the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The main findings of the study provide insight into the uptake of and assessment results for self-assessments, multiple-choice, blog and project-based assessments. The implications of the results are that there is a clear need in higher education for the transformation of teaching that is in line with emerging technologies.
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