Preparing for online teaching and learning

26 March 2020 | DVC A/PROF LIS LANGE

Dear colleagues

The declaration of a national lockdown has once again required changes to our planning for teaching and learning at the University of Cape Town (UCT) during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following sector consultations, universities have agreed that there will be a sector-wide date for the reopening of academic activities on 20 April. Taking this into account, the schedule for Term 2 (weeks 6 to 12 of the first semester) will now be as follows:

20–24 April: Learning Online Orientation for students

27 April: first week of teaching starts

UCT will be distributing laptops to those undergraduate students on financial aid who fell outside the net of support of the university’s laptop programme. We have identified a company that will be able to deliver these laptops to students after 17 April.

We will be running a survey of technological and environmental readiness among our students to ascertain their various needs. This will help course convenors get a better sense of what the challenges for online learning might be. The survey will be conducted via SMS to ensure maximum coverage.

The Learning Online Orientation week will be devoted to ensuring that as many students as possible are present and ready to start learning and to iron out any problems in terms of student support, Vula use, etc.

We are doing everything in our power to counter the difficulties that some students might experience with remote learning. We know that despite these efforts there will be some students who will need the opportunity of attending these courses face-to-face. We are making alternative plans for this to take place once students are back on campus. We acknowledge the burden that repeating courses face-to-face will place on staff, and we appreciate the willingness that many of you have shown in this regard out of concern for our most vulnerable students.

UCT will make available extra resources to be able to cope with the extra demand, like funding to appoint more tutors and teaching assistants. We are also working on developing a new academic calendar that takes into account the needs of our academic programmes, such as time for practicals and fieldwork, once we have resumed face-to-face teaching.

Thanks to your response to our survey of needs and readiness, our colleagues in the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) have been able to start supporting staff and scheduling their work to help academics refashion their courses to a different mode of teaching.

Work continues apace to develop appropriate guidelines and support systems for all students. We are also working with faculties and the Office of the Registrar to develop an appropriate framework for assessment and quality assurance over this period. These will be submitted to the Senate Executive Committee and Senate for approval.

We are aware of the anxiety that many academics are experiencing at the prospect of teaching remotely, as well as the uncertainty about how effective tutorial support will be under the current circumstances. We will not know the answer to some of these questions until we start working online. We are already working with faculties that, due to the organisation of their undergraduate teaching, find remote teaching especially challenging. We will provide alternatives that do not jeopardise the quality of teaching that students  receive or the quality assurance of our courses.

As indicated in my previous communication, we will keep you updated as we finalise further documents to guide us in this task. We are in permanent contact with the faculties through the Teaching Online Task Team (TOTT) and through the many academics that are working directly with the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT). It is imperative for the success of our work that we all move forward with a common approach, even as we allow for necessary differences between faculties.

On behalf of the UCT executive, I would like to thank each member of staff in the faculties and support services who are working against the clock to be able to launch our remote teaching programme next month.

I am keeping all of you in my thoughts.

Yours sincerely,

Associate Professor Lis Lange

Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning


Updates will be posted on UCT’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 feature page on the UCT News website.


Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Please view the republishing articles page for more information.


Coronavirus Disease 2019 updates

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March and implement a national lockdown from 26 March.

UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated regularly with the latest COVID-19 information.

Campus updates

 
  •  Information
  •  Normal
  •  Caution
  •  Alert

Daily updates


Friday, 5 February 14:20, 5 February 2021
Monday, 4 January 16:50, 4 January 2021
Friday, 18 December 11:30, 18 December 2020
Thursday, 19 November 09:30, 19 November 2020
Friday, 13 November 12:40, 13 November 2020
Friday, 16 October 10:05, 16 October 2020
Wednesday, 14 October 12:50, 14 October 2020
Tuesday, 22 September 14:10, 22 September 2020
Friday, 11 September 10:05, 11 September 2020
Monday, 31 August 12:20, 31 August 2020
Wednesday, 12 August 10:20, 12 August 2020
Friday, 7 August 11:24, 7 August 2020
Thursday, 6 August 18:26, 6 August 2020
Monday, 27 July 14:00, 27 July 2020
Wednesday, 15 July 09:30, 15 July 2020
Monday, 13 July 14:25, 13 July 2020
Monday, 6 July 16:20, 6 July 2020
Thursday, 25 June 10:15, 25 June 2020
Tuesday, 23 June 12:30, 23 June 2020
Thursday, 18 June 17:35, 18 June 2020
Wednesday, 17 June 10:45, 17 June 2020
Tuesday, 2 June 12:20, 2 June 2020
Friday, 29 May 09:25, 29 May 2020
Monday, 25 May 14:00, 25 May 2020
Thursday, 21 May 12:00, 21 May 2020
Wednesday, 6 May 10:00, 6 May 2020
Tuesday, 5 May 17:05, 5 May 2020
Thursday, 30 April 17:10, 30 April 2020
Tuesday, 28 April 10:30, 28 April 2020
Friday, 24 April 09:35, 24 April 2020
Thursday, 23 April 17:00, 23 April 2020
Wednesday, 22 April 14:25, 22 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 17:45, 20 April 2020
Friday, 17 April 12:30, 17 April 2020
Thursday, 16 April 09:45, 16 April 2020
Tuesday, 14 April 11:30, 14 April 2020
Thursday, 9 April 09:00, 9 April 2020
Wednesday, 8 April 15:40, 8 April 2020
Wednesday, 1 April 15:50, 1 April 2020
Friday, 27 March 11:40, 27 March 2020
Thursday, 26 March 18:30, 26 March 2020
Tuesday, 24 March 15:40, 24 March 2020
Monday, 23 March 15:40, 23 March 2020
Friday, 20 March 16:00, 20 March 2020
Thursday, 19 March 09:15, 19 March 2020
Wednesday, 18 March 16:00, 18 March 2020
Tuesday, 17 March 12:50, 17 March 2020
Monday, 16 March 17:15, 16 March 2020

Campus communications


New SRC and other updates 16:44, 4 November 2020
Virtual graduation ceremonies 13:30, 21 October 2020
Online staff assembly and other updates 15:09, 30 September 2020
Fee adjustments and other updates 15:21, 16 September 2020
Call for proposals: TLC2020 10:15, 26 August 2020
SAULM survey and other updates 15:30, 5 August 2020
COVID-19 cases and other updates 15:26, 5 August 2020
New UCT Council and other updates 15:12, 15 July 2020
Upcoming UCT virtual events 09:30, 15 July 2020
Pre-paid data for UCT students 14:25, 22 April 2020
Update for postgraduate students 12:55, 20 April 2020
UCT Human Resources and COVID-19 16:05, 19 March 2020
UCT confirms second COVID-19 case 09:15, 19 March 2020
Update on UCT COVID-19 response 13:50, 11 March 2020
Update on COVID-19 17:37, 6 March 2020

Resources

Video messages from the Department of Medicine

Getting credible, evidence-based, accessible information and recommendations relating to COVID-19

The Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, are producing educational video material for use on digital platforms and in multiple languages. The information contained in these videos is authenticated and endorsed by the team of experts based in the Department of Medicine. Many of the recommendations are based on current best evidence and are aligned to provincial, national and international guidelines. For more information on UCT’s Department of Medicine, please visit the website.


To watch more videos like these, visit the Department of Medicine’s YouTube channel.

Useful information from UCT

External resources


News and opinions


Statements and media releases


Media releases



Read more  

Statements from Government



 
 

In an email to the UCT community, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“COVID-19, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is a rapidly changing epidemic. [...] Information [...] will be updated as and when new information becomes available.”

 

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

TOP