* ​This article appeared on Netwerk24 on 21 July  and in Die Burger on 22 July.

Based on the lessons it has learnt this year, Stellenbosch University sees a golden opportunity to optimally combine classroom and online learning for its future students, writes Arnold Schoonwinkel.

On Tuesday 17 March 2020, the academic year at Stellenbosch University (SU) took a drastic turn.

With only three days left until the end of the term, SU encouraged its students to return home as it became clear that the increase in COVID-19 infections posed a risk to students and staff, who were mostly relying on face-to-face teaching.

The following Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national lockdown, which included a prohibition on face-to-face teaching at all universities.

With approximately 9 000 students hoping to graduate this year, and thousands more who would not be able to afford an additional year of study, saving students' academic year became management's top priority.

The March recess was extended by three weeks; we prepared to start with emergency remote teaching as from 20 April, and the academic calendar was adjusted to allow for conclusion by 18 December.

Functioning online

Of course, students and staff felt uncertain and vulnerable because they were unfamiliar with online learning and had concerns that this mode would not deliver the same quality as face-to-face teaching.

An online learning offering does not come close to the multifaceted experience of being on campus. Yet there was no other option, and we had to move online in record time.

With an adjusted pedagogy and prior investments in learning and teaching technologies, we managed to turn the challenge into an opportunity. This required major changes and extremely hard work from both staff and students.

Before the start of the second term, lecturers were trained in online learning and assessment methodologies through online seminars.

Valuable good-practice resources were posted on SU's website and are continuously updated as new lessons emerge.

Support staff and academics pulled together like never before to overcome every hurdle. Moreover, in addition to working in a completely new mode, our staff still had to attend to and teach their own children at home.

Students too received the best possible guidance to prepare them for the new learning mode, which demands even more self-discipline.

Because of the high degree of uncertainty associated with the change in learning mode, we also aligned SU's support services offering, including psychological support, with the demands of the digital world. Lecturers realised once more that students came from vastly different home environments and started offering additional support by creating online discussion forums and replying to a good many e-mail enquiries on the side.

SU facilitated countrywide home delivery of more than 1 700 laptops on loan to students in need. The premise is that no student should be left behind because of the new teaching mode. A monthly 30 MG data package is also available to every student who registers for it in order to gain access to online learning material from their cellphones.

In addition, we negotiated with mobile network providers to offer zero-rated access to certain SU websites.

A powerful new computer server was commissioned early in the second term, and certain software changes were made to accommodate the drastic increase in network traffic, with nearly 30 000 students navigating the learning management system every day.

In the few instances where IT problems or process glitches within SU's control did occur, students were offered alternatives to get their work done and submit academic outputs online.

Various methods have been developed to make online learning feasible and accessible.

Pre-recorded lectures are archived on the learning management system so that students may revisit these at any stage. This mitigates against the risk of connectivity issues and enables students to return to the learning material whenever they wish.

As one could expect, this entirely new way of working did result in certain problems beyond SU and its students' control, which have hindered some students' academic success.

Therefore, SU will be offering an additional set of exams in January 2021 for those students who failed modules in the first semester.

Having marked the June exam papers, lecturers' encouraging feedback is that this year's average pass rate is very close to that of 2019.

Challenges and motivators

In their feedback, lecturers have stressed the challenges of online learning, but have also highlighted how these have been overcome through open and regular communication with students.

The opportunity to learn through online seminars encouraged lecturers to try something new, safe in the knowledge that coordinators, advisors and colleagues were standing by to assist.

Academics have had no choice but to undertake programme renewal and reconsider their curriculum content, learning outcomes and assessment methods. Student tutors have also had to undergo further training.

Another motivator for lecturers has been students' positive feedback. Yes, some students have complained that online learning requires much more work, and that their home technology has caused them undue stress, particularly during assessments.

Yet the vast majority have thanked their lecturers for the extra effort that had gone into creating the best possible learning experience for the circumstances, and particularly also for their personal support.

Students are also impressed by how much lecturers' online teaching skills have developed in the space of a single term.

Parents, in turn, are astonished at how hard their children actually work – some attribute this to fewer distractions than on campus!

The future

SU is currently preparing for the second semester.

Following the announcement that up to 33% of students could return to campus under level 3, nearly 10 000 students were invited back for essential academic work.

These include students who need to do clinical work on Tygerberg campus, students who must complete practical work in order to graduate this year, as well as postgraduates who require access to specialised laboratory equipment.

A committee considered additional applications from students who had requested to return to campus and residence, as their home circumstances were not conducive to learning.

Plans to ensure safe environments are being implemented and SU is doing everything possible to limit the risk of infection.

The regulation limiting the number of occupants in a venue to a maximum of 50 people at a time makes normal teaching challenging.

Due to lecturers' current extensive duties and the limited number of timetable slots in a day, it is impossible to subdivide large class groups and repeat lectures.

Therefore, many of the lectures will have to be delivered online for the remainder of the year. This happens to be beneficial for our international students, who are not permitted to travel to South Africa at present.

We anticipate certain medium and long-term opportunities to emerge from our experience this year.

The University has been forced to archive a substantial amount of learning material over the past months. This material will remain available to lecturers and students in future, which implies less repetition of basic content.

This, in turn, offers opportunities to use the available time in class to focus more strongly on developing insight and applying knowledge.

SU also plans on extending its knowledge offering to students who do not have the option to study full-time. So-called hybrid learning programmes are being developed with this market in mind, combining short contact periods in class (or on online platforms) with significant online learning for the rest of the year.

SU is already preparing for its 2021 intake of newcomer students, and the demand is already surpassing last year's figures. We are determined to continue the quality offering we are known for. However, based on what we have learnt in 2020, we also see a golden opportunity to optimally combine classroom and online learning for SU's future students.