NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era Conference Proceedings Amit Dhakulkar & Jako Olivier, Eds. NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era Conference Proceedings Online conference held 6-7 December 2021 2022, Network of OER and Multimodal Self-Directed Learning in Southern Africa Amit Dhakulkar & Jako Olivier, Eds. NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era Conference Proceedings is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence (international): http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0. Cite as: Dhakulkar, A, & Olivier, J. (Eds.) (2022). NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era Conference Proceedings. Online conference held 6-7 December 2021. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7458973 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 CONTENTS Foreword ........................................................................................................................................................................1 Assessment of digitalized learning and teaching to senior high school in Pampanga, Philippines ............................................................................................................................................................................................2 Online group supervision as pedagogy under emergency conditions: optimising online collaboration towards self-directed learning in a South African HEI .................................................. 14 Evaluation of digital educational initiative during the Covid-19 pandemic using concerns-based adoption model ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Face-to-Face Versus Remote Learning: Student Behaviour Analysis through Educational Data ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 Student plagiarism detection in distance higher education .................................................................... 44 An analysis of the impact of Covid-19 emergency remote learning on first-year LLB student success rates............................................................................................................................................................... 55 An investigative study of opinion mining about e-learning and transformation that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic ........................................................................................................................... 67 Reflective teaching and learners’ performance: the case of a selected region in Namibia .......... 77 Curbing exclusion: the experiences of students with visual impairments and their lecturers on distance and online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in Namibia .......................................... 84 Overcoming gender imbalance in ICT-related jobs ..................................................................................... 96 A study of MOOC learners’ learning expectations, learning engagement and satisfaction ...... 116 Flipped-classroom approach in the digital post-Covid-19 era: an EFL blended learning scenario that promotes healthy eating habits .............................................................................................................. 128 The relationship between online professional learning communities and teaching presence ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 135 Technical support needs of distance students to participate in online courses at the centre of open and lifelong learning ................................................................................................................................. 145 Exploring mobile technologies as mitigating tools for online learning crisis................................ 166 Lecturers’ recommendations on how learning management system training and support can improve the implementation of blended learning in a higher education institution ................. 178 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 FOREWORD The Network of OER and Multimodal Self-Directed Learning in Southern Africa (NOMSA) and the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources from the North-West University, South Africa hosted the NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era online conference on 6 and 7 December 2021. With the increase in the use of technology in education and specifically in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic the realities of access to enabling technologies and online learning were prominent and this informed the focus of the conference. The conference welcomed papers based on empirical research as well as conceptual papers with a specific focus on open education and/or the wider field of digital and online education. This conference was envisaged by the NOMSA advisory board as a means to promote a wider South-South and North-South discourse on both open education and multimodal self-directed learning. These two aspects are increasingly becoming important in an educational sphere where costs of educational resources are rising and there is a need for relevant and localized content. Moreover, the role of technology is also indisputable as delivery and learning is conducted through different modalities. The conference included four keynote presentations, two workshops and 50 conference papers. Furthermore, the presenters come from 16 different countries: Canada, China, Eswatini, Gabon, Greece, India, Indonesia, Mauritius, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The keynote speakers of the conference were Prof. Asha S. Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning, Prof. Maha Bali, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Prof. Moeketsi Letseka, UNISA, South Africa and Dr Kaviraj Sharma Sukon, Open University of Mauritius, Mauritius. These proceedings present 16 papers submitted to be part of the proceedings, and which were accepted after a double-blind peer review. Only original research is included in the proceedings and all papers have been subjected to a plagiarism check on all to ensure quality. The target audience of the proceedings is specialists and academics. The papers included in these proceedings provide an interesting glimpse on the nature of digital education specifically within the context of COVID-19. Furthermore, these papers contribute not only to providing useful recommendations for teaching and learning practices, but also in broadening the scholarship of education in the digital era. Amit Dhakulkar and Jako Olivier 1 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 ASSESSMENT OF DIGITALIZED LEARNING AND TEACHING TO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN PAMPANGA, PHILIPPINES Jennifer H. Operio Holy Angel University, Philippines (nejoperio@gmail.com) Abstract This research assessed the value of digital technology to students’ learning in a private high school in Pampanga, Philippines. It examined the redefinition of the approach to teaching by integrating various forms of teaching methodologies to add value to classroom learning. This study is important to the respondent private school owners, administrators, students, and teaching and non-teaching staff in redefining teaching approach to a new breed of students. The research conducted descriptive quantitative research. The conceptual framework illustrates the independent, dependent and mediating variables. Teachers, with the courses they were teaching, and students, as the respondents, were the independent variables, and digital technology integration was the mediating variable. The dependent variables were the level of effectiveness of using technology for student engagement, and learning satisfaction. The respondents in the study were the administrators, senior high school students, and teaching and non-teaching staff in the school. The researcher used a self-developed survey questionnaire that was piloted with a separate group of respondents who were not part of the sample of participants identified for the study. As an ethical consideration, the proponent did not have a direct hand in distributing the survey form. Also, the identity of respondents, specifically of the students, was kept confidential. This study awakens the teaching community, particularly at high school level, to the great value of digital technology. The contribution of this study to the body of knowledge is an additional approach to teaching a millennial. INTRODUCTION Over the past 10 years, there has been an increasing use of the blended approach in teaching and learning, which integrates digital technologies into traditional teaching methods. This approach requires the physical presence of both the learner and tutor, but there is a component of authority over location, schedule, and track or pace by the student (Smyth et al., 2012). This new instructional approach is not just about increasing the units of computers inside classrooms; in other cases, it shows a basic transformation to educators and learners’ expectation of the study experience. The innovators of education by the name of Biggs and Tang (2011) agree that the mixed or blended teaching method consists of three parts: (i) “actual classroom activities assisted by a qualified and well-trained teacher”; (ii)”educational materials are uploaded online by that same teacher”; and (iii) “self-faced study time guided by the online resources, while the expected skills developed in the classroom setup.” The subject school is a private school located at MacArthur Highway in San Agustin, San Simon, Pampanga, Philippines. It is one of the oldest institutions in the locality of San Simon under the 2 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 management of the heirs of the late founders Erasmo G. Punsalan and his wife, Leonida (Student’s handbook, 2018). REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES A digitalized learning model uses an actual classroom schedule for various activities that benefit the most from direct and actual interaction. Old system college education is more lenient to place an emphasis on delivering material by way of a lecture, whereas a mixed-approach learning model lecture can be pre-recorded so students can watch at their own pace. Time spent in classroom is more likely to be for structural-designed activities that emphasize the application of the curriculum too sole problems or to work through tasks (Poon et al., 2010). In simple terms, hybrid learning can use classroom time at the start, then slowly increase the number of tasks that learners do online independently at their own pace. However, a few argue that discussion boards are a lot better if the students and teachers have seen each other first (Donnelly, 2010; Poon et al, 2010). The shift to a digitalized approach in teaching and learning has inspired teachers to redefine their traditional roles. Words such as “facilitator” became an alternate term to “teacher,” which connotes a new lens of focus. The “facilitator” focuses on empowering learners with talents, skills and knowledge basically needed to use most oof the materials online and independent study time, leading learners to the most exciting and rewarding experience (Puentedura, 2014). They focus on four key areas, namely: (1) creation of synchronous and asynchronous lesson content; (2) guiding learners in communication with and among them, which includes the pedagogical aspect in content online without using contextual clues; (3) assisting the learning experience of each learner and editing material whenever possible to improve the learning experience; and (4) grading and assessing. According to Biggs, emphasizing studying through guided and standard activities, the digitalized approach to learning proved to be more inclined to what some institutions and organizations coin as “hybrid training,” Through this approach, trainers can transfer their focus from knowledge delivery to its actual manifestation, and organizations incur less costs in transporting their trainers around just to look over the training activities and events (Biggs, 2011). The hybrid can become an effective option if educational institutions are looking for other ways to provide their learners with a more “personalized” experience in their studies, not worrying to stretch their budgets. It is a mixture of inperson instruction accompanied by online learning. Moreover, the hybrid approach to teaching and learning yields positive outcomes. The US Department of Education in 2010 statistically discovered that digitalized learning and teaching classes had a better outcome than their in-person meetings, nondigitalized equivalents. This rapidly increasing model not only grows the flexibility and individualization of learners in their studying experiences but also allows instructors to expand the time of their availability as guides of learning. The digitalized approach is a form of learning in which learners work remotely, and resources are basically delivered via an online platform. One-on-one meetings are optional; usually, learners can chat with teachers via the Internet if they have questions. This type of approach is ideal for learners who need more flexibility and independence in their daily schedules. It is becoming popular, and the number of learners participating in digitalized learning and teaching has increased by about 15% (Tang & Chaw, 2016). Evolving technology augments traditional learning, and the odd question is how to apply digitalized learning in the traditional classroom set up. It is an instruction pattern that 3 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 mixes various techniques in learning . Digitalized learning means the utilization of laboratory equipment to support interactions in the classroom and improve the teaching process through application of theories learned in class. The digitalized learning approach entails the complementary use of electronic learning in the standard education model because of the benefits it offers on a wide scale, for example, self-paced learning, testing and quizzing, monitoring, and feedback. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Puentedura’s “SAMR” model is a straightforward, simple structure that can be adopted in any type of learning environment. There is a shift to adopting technology in education, which, Puentedura believes, is followed by most educators upon initial introduction of technology to their students. In this model, there is a significant increase in the form of complexity of substitution up to redefinition. She believes that she is fortunate to have various technologies available for her to redefine and augment classroom teaching and learning. The use of these classroom tools allowed her to completely adopt a paperless and redefined classroom. Modifying traditional activities to facilitate a hands-on experience to students materialized through these technologies. Downloading pre-made lessons from various online teaching websites is even possible. Using mobile applications nowadays can help around 50 students to control and be engaged in the digital content. When a tutor can utilize the mobile application’s collaboration mode, teaching and learning can be transformed and redefined so that individual students and groups of students can collaborate on a certain classroom task. To check student performance, new systems innovation and design may be offered in several ways for both formative and summative assessment. The new systems innovation and design of technologies can provide endless possibilities for redefining distribution of knowledge content and letting students be engaged. For example, an educator may start each lesson with some sort of assessment piece to gather the data needed to evaluate student growth in the curriculum. A teacher may ask the students’ feedback in a public opinion poll, like a census, or insurance. Some students in groups may be given a collaborative task for which they use the mobile application software to complete and then share to other students. Closing the loop is to let students share their posts for peer review and with several additional summative assessment questions. It is easier to redefine and transform classroom tasks with classroom technologies. The paradigm of the study depicts the mediating, independent and dependent variables: the respondents, subjects and teachers, as the independent variables; the digitalized learning approach or technique as the mediating variable; and the level of effectiveness of utilizing digitalized learning to student engagement, and learning satisfaction as the dependent variables. Recommendations or suggestion on the most and least effective aspect the blended approach is also summarized. 4 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 1 illustrates the operational framework of the study, using the digital technology theory and the SAMR model as bases for the approach. Figure1: Operational framework As shown in the framework, the digitalized approach was assessed on its effect on teaching students in the subject private school. METHODOLOGY Research Problem The research objective was to assess the value of digital technology to students’ learning in a private high school in the province of Pampanga, Philippines. It examined a possible redefinition of the approach in teaching by educators through integrating other forms of teaching methodologies to add value to classroom learning. Particularly, it sought answers to the following questions: • • • • • Is digital technology being utilized in teaching subjects to senior high school students? What are the barriers to using digital technology to teach these students? How effective is the use of technology to students’ full engagement? What is the overall satisfaction of senior high school teachers in integrating technology into teaching? What is the most and least effective aspect of applying technology in teaching? Method The research design for this study was a combination of both descriptive quantitative research designs. Descriptive research is used to depict the features of a general population or peculiarity. In this research, the survey method was adopted – questionnaires were circulated and distributed to respondents, whereafter the questionnaires were dissected and analyzed by the researcher (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 45). The descriptive research design was suitable for this study because it included 5 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 gathering/collecting information to test questions concerning attitudes, feelings and opinions of the respondents. Such design is used to test attitudes, feelings and opinions about occasions, people, or procedures (Gay, 2003). Kothari (1995) notes that a descriptive survey design is concerned with identifying, recording, investigating, analyzing and reporting good circumstances that exist(ed). Engelhart (1972) contends that descriptive methods are used to acquire information helpful in assessing present practices and giving the premise of decision-making. A quantitative research design, as Bhandari (2022) defined it, “is a process of collecting and analyzing numerical data.” She also claimed “it can be used to find patterns and averages, make predictions, test causal relationships, and generalized results.” Respondents The group of respondents in this study comprised of 11 teachers, 7 administrators and non-teaching personnel, and 29 senior high school students who were in the ABM strand of the respondent private high school. Research instrument The researcher used a survey questionnaire to gather accurate information. The questionnaire was designed in such a way that the participants could easily understand what was being asked. It contained the respondents’ description (i.e., the classification, department, office and subject taught). Section 1 focused on the respondents’ experience of using the digital learning approach. Section 2 referred to their satisfaction in using digital learning, and section 3 involved comments about digital learning. In section 1, the first question was answered by either “yes” or “no”. When respondents answered “yes,” additional information was requested, but they had to skip question 2. However, respondents had to answer it when they answered “no” in question number 1. The third question used a five-point Likert scale: 5=most effective, 4=more effective, 3=effective, 2=less effective, and 1=least effective. Section 2 was about the overall satisfaction with using the digital learning approach, and a four-point Likert scale was used: 4=strongly agree, 3=agree, 2=disagree, and 1=strongly disagree. Section 3 was about respondents’ comments on the use of digital teaching and learning. Questions in this section were about three topmost advantages of using digital learning, the most and least effective aspect of digital learning and teaching. Data-gathering procedures The researcher asked the permission of the owners and administrators through the school principal, Madam Amelia D. Tan, to distribute the survey questionnaire. Prior to the actual survey, the researcher opted to have an in-person meeting with the principal to verbally ask approval. Once the request was granted, the researcher determined the total number of survey forms that had to be distributed to all teachers, non-teaching staff, administrators, and senior students in the high school. As an ethical consideration, the author had no direct involvement in the distribution and collection of the filled-out survey forms. DATA ANALYSIS The researcher classified, tallied and organized the information into tables, using qualitative and quantitative descriptions. The statistical tools that were utilized were frequency, percentage, and means with standard deviation to describe the questions. Frequency and percent were used for nominal data. Means together with standard deviation were computed for questionnaire items on fivepoint and four-point rating scales. The following tables were used to evaluate the ordinal data: 6 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 1: The most and least effective aspect of digital learning and teaching Likert Scale Likert Description Value Allocation (1) (2) (3) 1 Least effective 1.00-1.49 2 Less effective 1.50-2.49 3 Effective 2.50-3.49 4 More effective 3.50-4.49 5 Most effective 4.50-5.00 Table 2: Overall satisfaction of digital learning and teaching Likert Scale Likert Description Value Allocation (1) (2) (3) 1 Strongly disagree 1.00-1.49 2 Disagree 1.50-2.49 3 Agree 2.50-3.49 4 Strongly agree 3.50-4.00 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The study was an assessment of the effect of digitalized learning and teaching on student engagement and learning satisfaction. A survey was conducted to investigate the utilization of digitalized teaching and learning and its effectiveness. The results obtained were put through statistical analysis and are presented in the succeeding statements. The first table (please see List of Tables) shows the classification of the respondents, with a total of 47 participants. The majority of the participants were Grade 12 students. The succeeding table (table 2) presents the subjects taught by the respondents alphabetically. Eleven courses or subjects were listed in the table. Table 3 describes the utilization of digital media, also known in the school as “Genyo” learning, for teaching. The findings showed that five out of 11 teachers used the digital approach to teaching; one administrator and one non-teaching staff were amenable to the application of digitalized teaching and learning. Interestingly, the greatest number of students either used technology and internet to support their learning or appreciated the integration of the aforementioned in learning their subjects very much. The top three barriers in digitalization (see table 4) were as follows: (1)”unstable internet connection”; (2)”weak signal”; and (3)”availability of internet connection at home.” The level of effectiveness of the digitalized approach in teaching and learning using the Likert scale is shown in table 5 – the table shows that it was more effective compared to the traditional approach in teaching and learning. It shows a final mean figure 7 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 of 3.74. The participants in general, as depicted in table 6, indicated that they would like to have another school year of digitalized learning and teaching approach. The mean was 3.02, and the interpretation was “agree.” The overall satisfaction rating of the 47 participants was 2.92, which was interpreted as “agree.” This means that they were all satisfied with the digitalized approach. As per comments of the respondents about the approach, table 8 showed the top two answers as regards the advantages and disadvantages of using digital technology. “Flexibility” in completing assignments was number one, with 28 respondents who voted, or around 59.57% of the total participants. This was followed by “it is a requirement of the course.” Table 9 presents the top five choices of the participants in respect of the most effective aspect of this approach. The number one answer was “easily gets information and ideas.” Finally, in table 10, the least effective aspect of this approach was “it has replaced old way of interacting inside the four-walled classroom.” This lesser interaction between students and teachers paves way to more complicated issues in the younger generation. Students nowadays are more dependent on technological access, leading to less dependence on books in the library. The results also show that most teachers are still amenable to an in-person discussion of the topics rather than taking advantage of social media or online communication platforms. CONCLUSION This research shows that technology with development in inevitable. The integration and utilization of technology is affecting the present way of delivering information and teaching and a new breed of students – the millennials. The results also gave some fascinating insights into the continuous use of traditional teaching and learning in our present education system. Based on the results, depending on the subject being taught, technology may or may not be applicable. Interestingly, the results showed that the PE teacher used videos and audio to augment his teaching style and help students remember certain topics. For theoretical subjects or courses, like philosophy and entrepreneurship, the use of digitalized approach is not practical. On the other hand, others may view video material as a resource to augment teaching and learning in the classroom. It is also interesting to note that some of the respondents agreed that the digitalized approach could capture the interest of learners and help them to be more engaged in classroom activities. RECOMMENDATIONS AND DIRECTION FOR FUTURRE RESEARCH The following recommendations are based on the study findings: • • • Unavailability of internet at home and in school is a significant barrier to integrating technology in the teaching and learning approach at the senior high school level of the subject private high school. More research is needed to identify effective ways as to how to make internet more available in schools and classrooms. Research should address structural an attitudinal barrier and how these might be overcome. Weak signal and unstable internet connection proved to be another significant barrier to applying the blended-learning approach. Future research could explore possible ways in which international telecommunication companies can be allowed to break the long period of oligarchy in the telecommunications industry. Research would also need to address monopolistic control of the industry, giving way to equal chances to all students, regardless of area and economic status. Non-teaching staff disagreed the application of the digitalized approach to teaching methods. Research may look into deeper issues such as lack of training in technology and adapting an e-learning educational system for the school. Research should assess training needs and readiness of both teaching and non-teaching personnel to utilize technology. 8 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 • • Technology and advancements have their own pros and cons. Research could be conducted to get an equal footing for all types of students on the use and application of technology to the current curriculum (K-12) without allowing the more emphatic way of addressing their needs. Further research could be conducted across public and private schools in the province(s) of Pampanga and/or Bulacan Acknowledgements I want to express gratitude to the following persons for their cooperation and support : Pampanga Central College Secondary Principal, Madam Alma Tan; Office Administrator, Madam Gadelyn Aguilar; the School Director; faculty members of the Senior High School; non-teaching personnel; and Grade 12 students. REFERENCES Bhandari, P.(rev.July,2022). What is quantitative research? Definitions, uses and methods. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology /quantitative-research/ Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011) Teaching for quality learning at university (4th ed.). Open University Press. Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods. Oxford University Press. P. 15-50. Donnelly, R. (2010). Harmonizing technology with interaction in blended problem-based learning. Computer & Education, 54(2), 3503359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.08012 Engelhart, M. D. (1972). Methods of educational research. Rand McNally. Gay, L. R. (2003). Educational research: competencies for analysis and applications (7th ed.). Merrill/Prentice Hall. Kothari, C. R. (1995). Research methodology. Wishawa Prakashan. NMC Red Archive. (2012). Ruben Puentedura, Board Member. http://redarchive.nmc.org/rubenPuentedura-board-member. Operio, Jennifer H. (May, 2019). Impact assessment of technology to a private college in Bulacan, Philippines: mediating effect of hybrid approach. Paper presented at the 2019 IRES International Conference, Manila, Philippines. IJMAS-IRRAJ-DOI-15507. Poon, J., Royston, P., & Fuchs, W. (September, 2010). An examination of the critical factors for developing a successful blended learning teaching method for RICS and CIOB accredited courses. Paper presented at the RICS Foundation Construction and Building Research Conference (COBRA 2010), Paris, France. Puentedura, R. (2003, July 15). An introduction. http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives /000001.html. Puentedura, R. (2014, September 24). SAMR and Bloom’s taxonomy: assembling the puzzle. 9 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 https://www.graphite.org/blog/samr-and-blooms-taxonomy-assembling-the-puzzle Puentedura, R. (2014, November 12). SAMR: first steps. http://www.hippasus.com/rrrrpweblog/ archives/2014/11/13/SAMR_FirstSteps.pdf Smyth, S., Houghton, C., Cooney, A., & Casey, D. (2012). Students’ experiences of blended learning across a range of postgraduate programmes. Nurse Education Today, 32(4), 464-468, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.05.014 Students’ Handbook (2018-2019). Pampanga Central High School, San Agustin, San Simon, Pampanga. Tang, C. M., & Chaw, L. Y. (2016). Digital literacy: A prerequisite for effective learning in a blended learning environment? The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 14(1), 54-65. ISSN 1479-4403. LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of respondents Description Frequency Percentage Administrators and NTP 7 14.90% Faculty Members 11 23.40% Grade 12 Students 29 61.70% Total 47 100% Table 2: Subjects taught Subjects Frequency Percentage Applied Economics 1 9.09% Contemporary Philippine Art 1 9.09% Earth and Life Science 1 9.09% 10 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Empowerment Technologies 1 9.09% English 1 9.09% General Mathematics 1 9.09% P.E. 1 9.09% Personal Development 1 9.09% Philosophy 1 9.09% Practical research 2 1 9.09% TVL-Cookery 12 1 9.09% 11 100% Total Table 3: Utilization of hybrid learning in teaching Answers Administrators & NTP Faculty Grade 12 students Frequency Percentage Yes 2 5 25 32 68.09% No 5 6 4 15 31.91% Total 7 11 29 47 100% Table 4: Barriers to utilizing hybrid learning Barriers Frequency Percentage 1. Unstable internet connection 2. Weak Signal 15 31.91% 12 25.53% 3. Availability of internet at home 4. Availability of internet at school 5. Others: not applicable to the subject Total 8 17.02% 6 12.77% 6 12.77% 47 100% 11 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 5: Level of effectiveness of hybrid learning Likert Scale Likert Description Value Allocation Frequency (1) (2) (3) (4) 1 Least effective 1.00-1.49 3 3 2 Less Effective 1.50-2.49 3 6 3 Effective 2.50-3.49 12 36 4 More effective 3.50-4.49 14 56 5 Most effective 4.50-5.00 15 75 47 176/47=3.74 More effective Sum [(1)*(4)]/n Table 6: Have another hybrid learning approach in teaching Likert Scale Likert Description Value Allocation Frequency Sum (1) (2) (3) (4) [(1)*(4)]/n 1 Strongly disagree 1.00-1.49 4 4 2 Disagree 1.50-2.49 4 8 3 Agree 2.50-3.49 26 78 4 Strongly agree 3.50-4.00 13 52 47 142/47=3.02 Agree Table 7: Overall satisfied with hybrid learning Likert Scale Likert Description Value Allocation Frequency Sum (1) (2) (3) (4) [(1)*(4)]/n 1 Strongly disagree 1.00-1.49 2 2 2 Disagree 1.50-2.49 10 20 3 Agree 2.50-3.49 25 75 4 Strongly agree 3.50-4.00 10 40 12 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Agree 47 137/47=2.92 Table 8: Advantages of using hybrid learning Advantages Frequency Percentage 1. Flexibility to complete assignments 28 59.57% 2. Convenience 4 8.51% 3. It is a requirement for course 11 23.40% 4. The only available option 2 4.26% 5. Job responsibilities 2 4.26% 47 100% Total Table 9: Most effective aspect of hybrid learning Most effective Frequency Percentage 1. Easily get information and idea 2. Helps to understand lessons 3. Learners could work independently 4. More effective on students 5. Students can watch lessons repeatedly 6. More efficient learning 20 42.55% 7 14.89% 9 19.14% 3 6.38% 2 4.26% 2 4.26% 7. It helps students recall topics 8. Students can easily be motivated Total 2 4.26% 2 4.26% 47 100% Table 10: Least effective aspects of hybrid learning Least effective Frequency Percentage 1. Less student-teacher interaction 2. A lot of fake news and information 3. Abuse of technology 18 38.29% 25 53.19% 2 4.26% 4. More of a distraction 2 4.26% Total 47 100% 13 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 ONLINE GROUP SUPERVISION AS PEDAGOGY UNDER EMERGENCY CONDITIONS: OPTIMISING ONLINE COLLABORATION TOWARDS SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HEI Brenda van Wyk University of Pretoria (Brenda.vanwyk@up.ac.za) Quraisha Dawood Varsity College (qdawood@varsitycollege.co.za) Abstract The higher education institution (HEI) under study adopted a group supervision model for their honours students doing research projects. Implemented correctly, group supervision pedagogy offers opportunities for collaborative learning, addressing the challenges posed by one-on-one supervision in respect of improved peer learning and ensuring equity in delivery. It demands a specific skill set from supervisors in traditional face-to-face settings. In an emergency online environment, and compounded by an inherited unequal ecosystem, these skills and desired outcomes require an indepth understanding of the nature of the learning continuum. Ideally, online supervision should guide students in a group setting to progress and build competencies needed for self-directed learning where the student actively takes responsibility for their learning. The goal is to instil self-determined learning competencies for future readiness and success in a connected world. The pandemic posed restrictions on movement and demanded an immediate shift from the existing approach to a fully online mode. The model reported on in this study was implemented via the learning management system two years prior to lockdown. Subsequent lockdowns accelerated the roll out, inter alia, to all supervisors and students, as a compulsory mode of delivery. This mode change of delivery exposed shortcomings in existing supervisory skills, connectivity and technological accessibility, research and digital literacy competencies, and inclusivity challenges faced by all students, but more particularly by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through a conceptual framework, drawing on the neoWeberian and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approaches, this paper shows that the pandemic posed significant inequality challenges. Based on qualitative data from interviews with supervisors, substantiated by documentary data, the paper explores the nature and transition of supervision pedagogy in an emergency remote ecosystem to achieving self-directed competencies using online collaborative learning. Key requirements are recommended for the future success of group supervision on the learning continuum. Keywords: Supervision pedagogy, critical pedagogy, peer learning, group supervision, online supervision, self-directed learning INTRODUCTION Postgraduate and research supervision is generally described in literature (e.g., Petrucka, 2019; Maistry, 2017; Kanwal & Ahmed. 2021) as the process of guiding postgraduates throughout their research by engaging in guiding communication so that they succeed in their research journey and develop and transform into independent researchers. Ideally, the supervisor must mentor the student to become both a self-reliant and self-determined researcher (Wingrove, 2020). Literature abounds on the challenges faced during this liminal process where both supervisor competencies and student 14 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 responsiveness are critical variables for success. Maistry (2017) laments the paucity of research on postgraduate supervision in South Africa and stresses that much more must be done to build competencies and skills of supervisors. Although distance programmes made use of online supervision before lockdown, it was during the outbreak of COVID-19 that many supervisors in HEIs were compelled to continue supervision online. The pandemic exposed the inequalities in the South African education system; HEIs had to address inherent problems such as digital exclusion, online pedagogy and digital fluency while resorting to measures to continue online education and, in this case, online supervision. In an emergency online environment, and compounded by an inherited unequal ecosystem, these skills and desired outcomes require an in-depth understanding of the nature of the learning continuum at postgraduate level. Ideally, online group supervision should provide guidance to students in a group setting to progress and build competencies required for self-directed learning, where students actively take responsibility for their own progress, learning and success. Tsotetsi and Omodan (2021) warn about the power dynamic present in the supervision–student relationship where the student could be viewed as the neophyte and the supervisor as authoritative expert. This could be a challenge, as the goal of postgraduate supervision is to prepare students for self-determined learning to complete their research project or report. Knowledge about the research process and research competencies for future readiness and success of researchers must be achieved. Group supervision has been offered as an avenue to bolster peer learning and to build research capacity. It is a concept that has increasingly been introduced to build on the affordances of collaborative learning. The objective to get young researchers ready for future and lifelong learning predisposes the need to guide them to become independent and self-determent in their research learning. The pandemic posed restrictions on movement and demanded an immediate shift from the existing approach to a fully online mode. The change in relationship often occurred without having the requisite preparation for it, compounding the challenges in an existing unequal landscape (as reported by Van Wyk et al., 2020). This mode change of delivery exposed shortcomings in existing supervisory skills, connectivity and technological accessibility, gaps in research and digital literacy competencies and inclusivity challenges faced by all students, but more particularly by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through a conceptual framework, drawing on a neo-Weberian and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lens, the study illustrates that the pandemic posed significant inequality challenges. Based on qualitative data from a focus interview with a group of supervisors and substantiated by documentary data, the paper explores the liminality of supervision pedagogy and praxis in an emergency remote ecosystem. It explores the potential for achieving self-directed competencies by online collaborative learning. The paper further recommends key requirements for the future success of group supervision on the learning continuum. The aim of this study was to explore an existing group of online supervisors’ perceptions and experiences of striving to supervise research projects against the backdrop of a pandemic in a lived experience. The study also set out to ascertain whether a collaborative learning online supervision experience could counteract the negative aspects of the supervision power dynamics. BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW The study was conducted at a private HEI in South Africa among a group of supervisors doing online group supervision of students conducting research projects during lockdown. The case under study reported to have implemented their learning management system (LMS) two years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown of universities in March 2020 (Van Wyk et al., 2020). Subsequent lockdowns accelerated the roll out, inter alia, to all supervisors and students, as a compulsory mode of delivery. The HEI started group supervision for their Psychology Honours research projects. 15 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Supervisors are under increasing pressure to guide an ever-growing number of students who lack literacy skills and experience in writing logically and academically. Implemented correctly, group supervision pedagogy could pave the way towards collaborative learning, addressing the challenges posed by one-on-one supervision in respect of improved peer learning and ensuring equity in delivery. It demands a specific skill set from supervisors in traditional face-to-face settings. Foundational constructs of supervision Critical pedagogy and supervision According to Qureshi and Vazir (2016), the primary focus of research supervision is on discipline content knowledge and, presumably, the research expertise of a supervisor, but they lament that pedagogical content knowledge of research and supervision praxis is often negated to the detriment of the student: It does not take into account that supervision is more than overseeing students produce written research reports; it is a complicated and intensive form of one‐on‐one teaching of research which takes on a unique form of sustained interaction over at least one and a half years… (Qureshi & Vazir, 2016, p. 95) Supervision pedagogy through the lens of critical pedagogy has a place in the South African learning ecosystem. Overcoming inequalities and oppression is at the heart of critical theory and critical pedagogy. The Brazilian philosopher and educator Paolo Freire is the founder of critical pedagogy theory. Looking at power dynamics in education, the educational philosophy critical pedagogy applies concepts of critical theory (Freire & Ramos, 1970). In turn, critical pedagogy sets out to emancipate through critical consciousness. When achieved, critical consciousness encourages individuals to effect change in their world through social critique and political action towards self-actualisation. Supervisor attributes and competencies Reported research (including the studies of Maistry, 2017; Terentev & Dzhafarova, 2020; Tsotetsi & Omodan, 2021) stresses the importance of effective research supervision of research output – not just is it of major importance to increase completion rates but also to produce credible research and build capacity among young academics. Attributes and qualities expected of supervisors include a deep knowledge of the discipline, the ability to give constructive feedback, and being approachable. Doing online group supervision is a challenging and complex task (Maistry, 2017; Lawrence, 2019). Maor and Currie (2017) add that group supervision success depends on the following: • communicating and agreeing on roles and realistic expectations; • creating a structure to inform the process; • generating research output and scholarship; • having set goals and focusing on the end result; • creating the space where groups could interact meaningfully. Over and above knowledge of the research process and research literacy acumen, online supervisors are burdened with the need for digital fluency in navigating and managing the online setting. Supervisors seldom receive additional training and development, and supervision is learnt through practice. This poses challenges to new supervisors, who often lack in-depth research experience and research literacies. Maistry (2017, p. 19) calls this phenomenon “parallel learning” and warns that there is a real threat that may impact student attributes and leave young academics without the requisite deep conceptual level of research. Maor and Currie (2017) reported on studies conducted in Australia and Finland and concluded that the praxes that stood out throughout were: • • the importance of communication and dialogue between students and supervisors; deploying collaborative-based technology, such as online meeting platforms; 16 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 • navigating and emphasising being part of a collaborative community. Human agency in an online setting is critical, and Tsotetsi and Omodan (2021) warn against the inability of supervisors to sustain connectedness and understanding, especially when students’ circumstances change, as many supervisors can testify is what occurred during COVID-19. Group supervision Research on group supervision of postgraduate research has been reported since 2000. McFarlane (2009) posits that the time constraints of supervisors against the growing number of students is a reason to move to group supervision. Maistry (2017) points out that there is a period of liminality and dissonance where supervised students are particularly anxious and fear failure. This period of transition must be carefully managed, with due cognisance that students may display a range of behaviours of what they feel they are expected to do without achieving long-term development. Maistry (2017) alludes to core threshold milestones that supervisors must consciously instil and mentor. The incorporation of communities of practice, as theorised by Wenger (1999), is offered as an avenue to navigate the transition to becoming researchers in their own right (Maistry, 2017). Supervision on the learning continuum Supervisors are often not sensitised to actively mentor students to become future-ready and selfdetermined in honing their skills as future researchers. They require intrinsic motivation, and the will to collaborate and engage for the inherent rewards of the behaviour itself plays a key role in selfdetermination theory (Peters & Romero, 2019). Self-determined learning (SDL) hinges on autonomy and competence. It requires a level of maturity in taking responsibility for one’s success. Blaschke (2012) describes it as a process in which learners take ownership and responsibility, recognising their research literacies and learning needs, identifying learning resources, implementing problem-solving strategies, and reflecting on the learning processes to challenge existing assumptions and increase learning capabilities. Challenges of online learning and online group supervision Online group supervision is a more recent practice, and Maor and Curry (2017) explain that it is dependent on connectiveness, including online meetings through Skype, e-mails, and short message systems. They report that supervision became more participatory when research communities of practice were formed and resulted in more teamwork and collaborative learning (Maor & Currie, 2017, p. 14). McFarlane (2009) alludes to the resistance of supervisors to engage in group supervision and ascribes this to ineffective time management and the inability to manage social and group diversity often prevalent in the South African context. In a more recent South African study, Mhlahlo (2020) reported that inadequate academic literacy among South African postgraduate students remain a stumbling block in South African HEIs. He warns that where this gap remains unaddressed, students may feel marginalised and excluded (Mhlahlo, 2020). The online environment calls for an additional set of skills. The complex and multifaceted aspects of digital exclusion, or “digital inequality”, as Zheng and Walsham (2021:2) suggest, compound longstanding social inequalities that are reproduced in a recurring cycle between social and digital inequalities (Park & Humphrey, 2019:938). This subjugates certain members of society based on exclusion and erects parameters around those who reap the benefits of inclusion. Park and Humphrey (2020) further deliberate that social exclusion exists where students cannot collaborate and participate fully due their level of education, location, economic status, language, gender, or employment. Owing to the recurring cycle of inequality, social exclusion also implies a lack of control over one’s status in society, and little potential for social mobility prevails. Compounding this is digital exclusion, which is the inability to take part in society due to a lack of access to contemporary digital technology, including access to social media. Essentially, the exclusionary nature of society and digital technology, despite success in automation and information systems, creates gulfs of inequality 17 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 between members of society. Debates about digital inequalities are no longer restricted to who has a personal computer and who does not; rather, it is a fact that people can “no longer play a meaningful role in contemporary society without using digital technology” (Van Dijk, 2020). In line with the arguments of neo-Weberian proponents, social and digital inequality and exclusions result in the social position of individuals in society based on power, social structures and access (Saks, 2016). CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The complexities of a fully inclusive design for guiding young researchers in an unequal learning ecosystem are immense. Not only is South African HE still battling continued eradication of past inequalities, the ubiquitous and disruptive technological changes and the unprecedented pandemic were exasperating barriers and challenges. It stands to reason that a single approach and frame would not support these complexities. Mehta and Aguilera (2020) remind us about Freire’s motivation and conviction in aspiring critical pedagogies to address the dehumanising effect of exclusion. Research in critical theory and critical pedagogy has offered solutions in the past, and strength can be drawn from this seminal work to address the identified problem of the case at hand. Value was derived from components in the neoWeberian framework and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Considering the affordances of neo-Weberian principles as foundation and point of departure Social stratification has long been a concern for neo-Weberian theorists, who traditionally view divisions in society along racial, economic and gendered lines. Further, the pandemic has exposed inequalities in society, necessitating a relook at the neo-Weberian framework to contemporary South African society, paying particular attention to inequalities that have arisen in the digital sphere in the context of COVID-19. The neo-Weberian approach looks at three components of equality in society: class, status and power (Ragnedda, 2016). The framework is particularly suitable for research affected by fast-changing modern technologies and inequality and fluctuations in society. In support of the deconstruction of prevailing power dimensions, Zheng and Walsham (2021:2) elaborate that digital inequality operates at the “intersection of multiple fracture lines of difference that mediates the various spaces of inclusion and exclusion”. Thus, it is pertinent to note that inequalities are interconnected, such that there is a spectrum along which exclusion and shelters of inclusion exist rather than a clear digital divide as previously theorised. This application of the neo-Weberian approach is particularly relevant to the South African context, which bears the brunt of a legacy engrained in racial and geographic segregation, and contemporary inequalities in access to technology and digital education. The value of UDL as lens for supervision Sanger (2020) describes UDL as an inclusive pedagogy where the aim is to make learning as accessible and welcoming to all students as possible. The value of UDL to frame online learning has been heralded of late. The three networked principles underpinning UDL that can also be applied to supervision are as follows: • • • Affective network – The “why” of supervision and entails motivation, engagement, purpose, reflection and self-regulation to create learners who are purposeful and motivated; Recognition network – The “what” of supervision and involves background knowledge, vocabulary, visuals, information processing and contextual understanding to create learners who are resourceful and knowledgeable; Strategic network – The “how” of supervision and includes goal setting, planning, strategies and monitoring to create learners who are strategic and goal directed. 18 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 These qualities are sought by online group supervision. Authors (Sanger, 2020; Wichmann-Hansen, Thomsen, & Nordentoft, 2014) highlight the value of peer-to-peer learning in an inclusive learning environment, such as that offered in group supervision. It is during these sessions that students are afforded meaningful exposure to the theoretical and methodological approaches of their peers under the guidance of their supervisor. The desired outcome of online group supervision is to motivate and support novice researchers to become confident, self-reliant, and self-determined students and researchers. Building on the foundational insights of the neo-Weberian model, a scaffold conceptual framework was derived to frame this study. Figure 1: A conceptual framework for studying online research supervision The combined conceptual framework provides a lens to guide the study and focus on inclusivity towards self-determination of young academics being supervised as well as on social and cultural levels of inequality experienced by many South African students. It allows for critical theory to inform critical pedagogy. The framework is explained in figure 1 above. RESEARCH DESIGN Sampling, data collection and analysis Qualitative data were collected through a focus group interview session with a group of postgraduate supervisors who had to conduct group supervision online and guide their students to conduct their research projects online. Vaismoradi et al. (2016) state that qualitative research – as a group of approaches for the collection and analysis of data – aims to provide an in-depth, socio-contextual and detailed description and interpretation of the research topic. Further, focus groups allow for clarification of questions, the emergence of topics that the researcher may not have anticipated, and rich discussions that provide in-depth data “unmatched” by quantitative methodologies (SIS International Research, 2020). Eight supervisors, responsible for postgraduate honours research students at the private HEI’s campuses across South Africa, were purposively selected and invited to participate in the one-hour focus group. All accepted, signed the informed consent and participated. An observation schedule 19 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 was used with a focus group interview schedule. Observation in qualitative research can be described as the systematic description of participant behaviour and, in this case, the online setting chosen for this study (Bezuidenhout, Davis, & Du Plooy-Cilliers, 2014). One of the researchers facilitated the focus group, while the other noted observations and clarified where necessary. Observations enabled the researcher to describe the existing research environment using their senses to create a resemblance of the group. Participant observation allowed the researcher to be part of the focus group activities and to get a better understanding of the phenomenon under study. The observations allowed for triangulation of data collected during the interviews. The qualitative data collected during the focus group interviews were analysed using thematic reflective analysis. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS The study set out to gauge and report on a group of supervisors doing online group supervision. The focus group interview was recorded and transcribed. The transcript was audited as a truthful copy of the recordings. Findings were analysed thematically. Thematic analysis is related to phenomenology, as it focuses subjectively on the human experience (Noon, 2018). This approach focused on the participants’ reported experiences, perceptions, opinions, and feelings as the object of study. The data that emerged from the transcribed recording, field notes and observation schedule were triangulated. According to participants, students mentioned that there was a burden to ensure that the online research reached the right participants and recipients. Also, they could not ensure that research subjects were in a space where they felt comfortable to share confidential information. On resistance to group supervision in an online setting: Findings indicated that although supervisors had been trained in online pedagogy and supervision, there was still a margin of resistance and a preference for face-to-face supervision: I think a lot of things happened across a number of honours supervision, hmm, it is easier to interact face to face. (Participant 1) And I agree with what XX [identified as participant 1] has to say. It is a problem with lack to seeing and interacting with students. That was first problem, hmmm… And then technical problems. They were new to using technology as we were. It was definitely more difficult online. (Participant 2) On inclusivity in an online supervisory setting: Participants in the focus group interview reported that many of their students were from marginalised communities, where the blurring of home and studies was experienced negatively. Participants said the following with regard to the challenges of digital exclusion and access to the required technology: With poor connection experienced by some students you would find that they often miss chunks of information. Where there were electricity cuts, I found that the flow of though was disrupted, and you see someone go offline, trying to come back on and loose that strand of logic. (Participant 3) We have a WhatsApp group to support students. Or… Finding that intrinsic motivation… for some student’s home is in a rural area…So, you had to wait for them to get into town to where they could listen to a recording … and …You really had to find that balance…Some had great connectivity and some not. (Participant 3) 20 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 On digital fluency: Findings suggest that not just students faced challenges of digital literacy; supervisors also reported concerns about their own competencies: I think the often happens easier face to face, but in a virtual space it is much trickier… we may have cameras on or cameras off … There are distractions that may be an extra burden on students. We do not know the circumstances of the student online, and how open and honest they can be…we don’t even know. … I think [of] the challenges of being a supervisor… we go the extra mile. There are a lot of compounding variables…Our honours classes have grown very quickly – it is difficult to say which had the impact – maybe because I am not that comfortable with technology…I did feel that I was less engaged online. (Participant 5) On building trust relations online: While the face-to-face environment allowed supervisors to build trust relationships with students and facilitated relationships between students, the online environment impeded the usual. Participants 4, 5 and 6 lamented this as follows: I think building on what my colleagues have said…, from my own experience as being supervised for my masters…you learn to adapt to your teaching styles… You build a relationship with your supervisor, even if this is not as daunting on honours level…the online detract from that ability. The way we convey the information … it became blanket vanilla way offering of teaching… you have an introspective look… are we doing what we should… (Participant 4) And It takes some time to relax and then trust was not built because of strangeness of online we never really got to build that, never got to the point where people could trust each other. They might go to the canteen, have coffee together, And the never socialised as class… so I think (Participant 5) …I think made face to face classes where they see each other outside of class and where they can socialise…THAT leads to collaboration… and... and... creates that trust… (Participant 6) On group facilitation skills: Participants all reported that online supervision required a measure of role extension and asked much more from them than the face-to-face sessions. They reported that some students would be hesitant to voice opinions and participate, while others could dominate conversations. On collaborative learning: Participants reported that a level of socialisation among students facilitated collaborative learning, and they lamented that the online environment did not accommodate this: …And the never socialised as class… so I think THAT… and that I think made face to face classes where they see each other outside of class and where they can socialise…THAT leads to collaboration… and…creates that trust…They never really had that online and never had these in between chats. Dare I call it social distancing. … it took me a while to get used to it… some of that comfort was problematic as habits had to be undone…. Some students avoided to participated and has excuses such as constantly complaining their mikes are not working…whereas, in class it is easier to get students 21 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 involved… online they could effectively disappear. On human agency in online supervision: This is going to sound heartless…I did not give emotional support. I did not want to open myself… I did not want to… I have never really reflected on this. I think it was a mechanism to protect myself, I did not want to go down that rabbit hole… I did not see a need for emotional support… (Participant 1) The participants, being academics and supervisors reporting on their experiences, displayed a good understanding of the HEI’s codes, policies and research ethics. They could identify, elaborate and report on research ethics risks posed by doing online research. Participants reported similar disengagement during online and group supervision sessions conducted via the LMS. The identified themes coded after the thematic analysis correspond with the constructs of the neo-Weberian stratification of three class systems, namely wealth, class and power. It is clear that supervisors in this study needed more preparation, support and training to successfully mentor and supervise students online. Sadeck (2016) posits that a focus must be more on e-teaching and facilitation than on e-learning in an online setting. He distinguishes this as follows: whereas elearning can be seen as technology enhanced teaching and learning for students, e-teaching focuses on what the lecturer does and how they apply technology to pedagogy (Sadeck, 2016). The LMS is effective for continued e-learning, but research and supervision were not geared for online engagement. The HEI has embedded digital sources and services to assist students, but these sources must be advocated to improve usage. It is clear that continuous lecturer and supervisor training and support are needed to manage difficult online situations, such as disengagement, dropouts and especially plagiarism and reported research ethics problems. The finding and observations of this study are in line with the study that Tsotetsi and Omodan conducted in 2021: the researchers observed that supervisors were at times overwhelmed by the supervision load. In this case, they were hampered by the number of hours allocated to do supervision. The findings of the study are in line with similar and previously reported research (e.g., Devkota, 2021). Moreover, the findings correlate with the desk research reported by Ragnedda and Muschert (2015) in which they justify the usefulness of the neo-Weberian framework to explore the complexities of the digital divide as a social phenomenon. Online group supervision posed challenges to the participants in this study. Both elements of group supervision as well as the online setting were said to be improved. The findings of this study are in line with similar studies that found that where research supervision is approached as a pedagogy, success for students is higher (Engebretson et al., 2008). In online supervision, challenges are faced with establishing human agency, continuation of meaningful collaboration and the management of diversity. Participants echoed the sentiments expressed by Qureshi and Vazir (2016) that alluded to the negations of the various technical roles a supervisor must take on to facilitate students’ progress (e.g., instructor, mentor, coach, advisor and councillor, among others, which are all teachers’ roles). Wittman and Olivier (2021) concur with Guglielmino (2013) (as cited in Wittman & Olivier, 2021) that information and technology grow exponentially, and they remain important to cultivate selfdirectedness in educators to transfer these skills to students in the attainment of lifelong learners. For this to happen, students and young researchers must take responsibility and be motivated. Responsibility and collaborative control of the cognitive (self-monitoring) and contextual (selfmanagement) processes in constructing and confirming meaningful and worthwhile learning outcomes. (Wittman & Olivier, 2021, p. 74) Al-Shahrani and Mohamad (2018) posit that these qualities and competencies must first be present in the supervisors. Mehta and Aguilera (2020) warn about the essence of creating a supportive learning environment and allude that critically framed approaches are essential to humanising critical digital 22 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 pedagogies and supervision towards improved inclusive learning environments across online contexts. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION The key recommendation stemming from this study is that online supervision needs to form part of the continuum of learning towards lifelong and self-determined learning. Supervisor training should focus on humanising research capacity building in an online environment. Supervisors should be sensitised to the complexities and challenges of inequalities faced by postgraduate students doing research via online group supervision. The exposure of both students and supervisors to an institutional research culture would greatly enhance chances for successful supervision praxis. Although the focus group scenario does not allow for generalisations per se, it is clear from this study that supervisors felt that they were not fully supported nor equipped to do online group supervision. Subsequently, the deconstruction of oppressive components present in supervision may not succeed. Taking into account that in their seminal work, Freire and Ramos (1970) stressed the importance that education must prepare students for meaningful civic participation, it stands to reason that the outcome of postgraduate research should move in the direction of self-directed learning. However, this may not immediately be achievable in research projects on NQF 8; it serves as a liminal pathway in the transition to and process of becoming self-determent and self-reliant academic contributors. This document is released under a Creative Commons by SA, as indicated in figure 2. Figure 2: The Creative Commons by SA icon REFERENCES Al-Shahrani, A., & Mohamad, M. (2018). Online Supervision for PhD Students in Saudi Arabia: A Review between Idealism and Realism. ELearning & Software for Education, 1, 349–355. Aguayo, C., Eames, C., & Cochrane, T. (2020). A framework for mixed reality free-choice, selfdetermined learning. Research in Learning Technology, 28. Ashman, A. (2010). Modelling inclusive practices in postgraduate tertiary education courses. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14(7), 667–680. Bezuidenhout, R.-M., Davis, C., & Du Plooy-Cilliers, F. (2014). Research matters. Juta and Company. Blaschke, L. M. (2012). 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Van Wyk, B., Mooney, G., Duma, N., & Faloye, S. (2020). Emergency remote learning in the times of Covid: a higher education innovation strategy. 19th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2020), Proceedings of a meeting held from 28–30 October 2020, Berlin, Germany 626(1), 499 ISBN 9781713820659. McFarlane, B. (2009). Researching with integrity: the ethics of academic enquiry. Routledge. Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic action. The Free Press. Wichmann-Hansen, G., Thomsen, R., & Nordentoft, H. (2015). Challenges in collective academic 24 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 supervision: supervisors’ experiences from a master programme in guidance and counselling. Higher Education (00181560), 70(1), 19–33. https://doiorg.ezproxy.iielearn.ac.za/10.1007/s10734-014-9821-2 Wingrove, A. et al. (2020). Self-determination theory: a theoretical framework for group supervision with internal coaches. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching & Mentoring, 18(2), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.24384/jxxd-st61 Wittmann, G., & Olivier, J. (2021). Blended learning as an approach to foster self-directed learning in teacher professional development programmes. The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 16(2), 73. World Health Organization (WHO). (2020). WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID. 19–11 March 2020. Zheng, Y., & Walsham, G. (2021). Inequality of what? An intersectional approach to digital inequality under Covid-19. Information and Organization, 31(1), 100341. 25 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 EVALUATION OF DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC USING CONCERNS-BASED ADOPTION MODEL Divya C. Senan Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Kerala, India (mail2divyacsenan@gmail.com) Seenathmol, N. Research Scholar, Department of Education, University of Kerala, India Jayapraveen, J. ICSSR Doctoral Scholar, Department of Education, University of Kerala, India Abstract The World Health Organization (WHO) regards the COVID-19 pandemic as the most challenging health crisis the world has ever faced (UN Policy Brief, 2020). It has affected all sectors of society badly. The pandemic has forced education sectors to shift dramatically to virtual and blended modes of teaching and learning with the help of various ICT tools. The crisis has stimulated innovation in the field of education. India has also seen various innovative approaches and solutions of ICT-led educational initiatives to reach out to everyone, including the most marginalised populations who may lack access to education, digital devices and connectivity. Kerala, the most literate state in India, has paved the path to effectively using technology to ensure continuous learning by enabling universal access to ICT infrastructure for remote learning. The Government of Kerala launched a digital educational initiative named “First Bell” that was broadcast on VICTERS Educational Channel, an educational television channel launched in 2005 with the vision of taking the benefits. The team effort of the Director of General Education, State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK), State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), and Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) ensured the successful implementation of the new culture of learning. Apart from television, the sessions were made available on the web page of KITE, on Facebook, and on YouTube. The concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) was used to collect survey and qualitative interview data to inform the implementation of the “First Bell” programme. This paper presents data collected through CBAM and the analysis that identified and interpreted both the concerns and extent of the digital programme. Keywords: First Bell programme, digital learning, concerns-based adoption model INTRODUCTION The traditional way of learning offers students little scope of engagement, as the dynamics of a traditional classroom comprise students, textbooks and educators for learning. On the other hand, the digital education system provides a wide variety of options for students to learn. Digital learning can be defined as the use of computer and internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solution[s] to enable learning and improve performance (Ghirardini, 2011). The limitless availability of images and video content, virtual reality, interactive sessions and many more make the digital learning method more engrossing and smoother for students to grasp. Digital education systems and technology permeate the gaps, while in traditional classrooms, teaching drops back. The former offers several advantages for students, including the opportunity to study flexibly and from a place that suits them. 26 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The blend of technology and education has made education available to all by addressing the constraints of traditional models of learning. As the impact of COVID-19 spread across the globe, schools started to quickly adapt to the online way of doing things. Though the importance of virtual classrooms was not clear before, it has now captured considerable attention. With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, the adoption of digital learning will continue to persist in the post-pandemic education scenario. The governments of most countries ordered to lock down and asked people to stay at their homes due to the danger of this virus to human life. In this period, teachers in different countries started using e-learning to teach students. While the whole world is fighting the invisible enemy (COVID-19), which has kill thousands of people around the globe, the teaching and learning process moved on by using digital learning technologies. DIGITAL EDUCATION: THE INDIAN SCENARIO With the technological advancement in the past decade, “digital classrooms” have become more prevalent and relevant in India. The Government of India launched the Digital India initiative in 2015 to ensure that the services of the Government are made available electronically to all citizens. This objective is achieved by strengthening online infrastructure and improving internet connectivity across the country. The major objectives of the Digital India initiative were the development of a stable and secure digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally, Universal Digital Literacy, et cetera. The programme envisioned inclusive growth in all sectors. The e-education initiative started as part of Digital India programmes provided through online education in remote and urban areas, using smartphones, apps and internet services. It also included plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks and improve digital literacy. The comprehensive initiative called “PM e-Vidya” was launched in May 2020. This initiative aims to unify all efforts related to online education to enable equitable multimode access to education. Another significant initiative is DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) which focuses on “one nation, one digital platform” for school education in India. Apart from this, the Government also started TV channels for mass reach of eLearning. Swayam Prabha – a series of 32 channels – was launched. E-textbooks were launched under ePathshala, where the government provides a plethora of educational content (especially NCERT). The Government has taken multiple initiatives in 2020 for the improvisation and accessibility of digital education, including radio broadcasting, for the differently abled. KERALA MODEL DIGITAL LEARNING INITIATIVE The State of Kerala, in the southwestern part of India, is the most literate state in India and holds a distinctive position on the development map of the world. The State can be compared with many developed nations in respect of its unique socio-economic and demographic characteristics (Ramachandran, 1996; Oommen, 1992, 1999, Vol. 1 & 2). The State has also paved the way in effectively using technology to ensure continuous learning by enabling universal access to ICT infrastructure for remote learning and has become the first state in the country to have high-tech classrooms in all of its public schools. The schools in Kerala are categorised by three funding models: government schools are funded by the government; aided schools receive government funding for teachers’ salary but not for school infrastructure; and unaided schools are funded solely by the private sector. All receive institutional support from the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The following are the various initiatives of the government towards digitalization of education in the state: • • • all government and aided schools in the state are equipped with ICT hardware, broadband connectivity and infrastructure; information technology has become a compulsory subject in the school curriculum; all teachers are trained in ICT and are regularly updated; 27 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 • • • • active participation of teachers and students in computer literacy programmes; teachers create most of the ICT content; students are exposed to the latest trends in ICT; several academic and scholastic e-Governance applications are put in place by IT@School Project. Hi-Tech School Initiative of Kerala The Public Education Rejuvenation Mission of the Government of Kerala aims to bring all classrooms up to worldwide standards, and the “Hi-Tech School” programme is a significant component of this initiative. As the pioneer of ICT-enabled education in the state for more than a decade, Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) was selected as the implementing agency for the scheme. KITE created a programme that has modernized 450 000 classrooms in 4 752 schools. The 4 752 schools comprise government and aided higher institutions, advanced placement and vocational advanced placement schools. Each high-tech classroom has a laptop, a ceiling-mounted multimedia projector, HDMI cables and faceplates, a whiteboard/projection screen, USB speakers, high-speed broadband internet, and access to the Samagra Resource Portal. The advanced IT labs are equipped with laptops, a sound system, and multifunction printers. In addition, each of the 4 752 schools received a 42-inch LED television, a webcam with Full HD resolution, and a DSLR camera. The IT labs and classrooms are network-connected via a central server in the lab, allowing for the sharing of information. KITE has been an advocate for free and open-source software for decades, as it allows for the unrestricted creation, editing and sharing of educational information. KITE has built its own operating system, IT@School Ubuntu, which has several educational apps. ICT: Access and availability The report on the implementation of the Kerala Government’s Hi-Tech School programme showed that 83% of teachers had computer (laptop/desktop) at home, 70% had internet connectivity at home, and 99% had access to a smart phone. Of the instructors, 40.30% had computers in their classrooms, while 39.17% had computer labs that they could arrange for their pupils to use. Additionally, 12.55% of educators had a portable laptop. The availability of instructional technology in Kerala schools is seen in the graph below. 28 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 1: Technologies available for teaching FIRST BELL PROGRAMME The COVID-19 pandemic has virtually made social life come to a standstill and has consequentially affected mobility. The spread of the pandemic has forced the education department to proactively plan new initiatives to cope with the unprecedented situation. Against this background, the Government of Kerala introduced an online platform for the teaching–learning process. Kerala Government started a virtual class initiative called “First Bell”. The virtual classes for state school students were organized so that education was imparted amid the COVID-19 crisis. The “First Bell” programme was aired on VICTERS educational channel. This format is not intended to compensate for the minimum instructional days that a school year should hold as per the provisions of the RTE Act (2009) and the Kerala Education Rules, but rather to keep abreast of the process of education, which the students would have otherwise undergone under normal conditions. To avoid any kind of discrimination, especially against marginalized groups, government-formulated programmes, with the help of the community, were telecast to ensure access to all children to attend the digital classes, and it was decided that each child must come under the ambit of the programme. In addition to television, the sessions were made available on www.victers.kite.kerala.gov.in, on Facebook, and on YouTube. For students who could not view the class due to power failure or otherwise, the classes could be downloaded and used later or be repeatedly viewed, thereby ensuring that no student was denied availability of the classes, thus, envisaging a continuing process of education. Specific ICT online training was provided to 81 000 primary school teachers. This training was completed within five days by effectively making use of hi-tech facilities in schools. The teachers used Samagra Resource Portal (www.samagra.kite. kerala.gov.in) for self-learning, with the help of 29 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 numerous digital contents available in the portal. Moreover, necessary support systems were set up, such as video conferencing, with a mentor for a fixed number of schools, social media, and help desks for clearing and monitoring doubts. Massive state-level training for teachers was introduced through KITE VICTERS educational channel that was simultaneously streamed on the Web and mobile phones. THE CONCERNS-BASED ADOPTION MODEL CBAM is a conceptual framework that provides tools and techniques for facilitating and assessing the implementation of new innovations or reform initiatives. This model applies to those experiencing change; this may include policy-makers, teachers, parents, and students (Hall & Hord, 1987; Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, & Hall, 1987; Loucks-Horsley & Stiegelbauer, 1991). CBAM has a diagnostic component and a prescriptive component. The diagnostic component comprises three dimensions: • • • stages of concern (SoC) deal with the feelings of individuals involved in change; levels of use (LoU) describe how individuals interact with a new programme; innovation configurations are the adaptations made to the programme. Concerns-based models do not focus on the why of the innovation but on the assumption that an understanding of the concerns and adoption process can facilitate success with the adoption of new technology. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the three diagnostic dimensions of CBAM: stages of concern (SoC); level of use (LoU); and innovation configuration (Hall & Hord, 1987, 2011). Seven distinct levels of concern have been identified. The first stage is called “unconcerned”. Respondents show little concern about innovation at this time (George et al., 2006, p. 8). The first stage of the innovation process is known as “Informational” and it involves an individual’s curiosity about gathering facts and studying the basics of the topic. In stage 2 (Personal), the individual begins to worry about how the invention may affect them personally. During stage 3 (Management), the focus shifts to how the individual performs tasks. Fourth stage (Consequence) examines how students’ specific worries would be affected by innovation. In the fifth stage (Collaboration), the innovator begins to consider working with others to implement the new idea. Stage 6 (Refocusing) involves individuals modifying the invention to increase its usefulness. The SoC questionnaire (SoCQ) was used in the quantitative phase of the study to identify teachers’ concerns about the First Bell programme. The Innovation Configuration and LoU interview protocol were used in the qualitative phase of the study to explore teachers’ involvement in the First Bell programme. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The main purpose of this study was to assess the concerns of high school teachers in Kerala, India, about the First Bell programme. The goals of the present study were: i. ii. to identify peak concerns of teachers when implementing the First Bell programme; to determine teachers’ perspectives of the use of ICT-enabled instruction during the First Bell programme. To achieve the above goals, the following research questions guided this study: i. ii. Which areas of peak stage concern (as described in the SoCQ) are most prevalent among teachers in the use of ICT-enabled instruction during the First Bell programme? How do teachers of Kerala describe their experiences during the First Bell programme? 30 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A mixed-methods approach was used, blending quantitative and qualitative methods, to discover the level of teachers’ concerns about implementing the First Bell programme. The study sample consisted of 200 secondary school teachers from Trivandrum district. Researchers used the random sampling technique (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010). A Google Form was developed and sent via a link to all of the participants to complete the SoCQ survey. The 35-item SoC questionnaire (SoCQ) (eight-point Likert scale) was used to evaluate the concerns of teachers during the implementation of the First Bell programme. By picking a number between 0 and 7, teachers expressed their level of concern about the First Bell programme. The raw results of each questionnaire item were transformed to percentile ratings, which indicate the seven levels of concern among teachers. According to the SoCQ handbook, the percentile score represents the relative level of concern at each stage. The greater the score, the more pressing the issues. “The lower the score, the fewer severe the concerns at that time” (George et al., 2006, p. 32). The approach to assessing the SOCQ score was based on the suggestion made by George et al. (2006) in their handbook. DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE Table 1 shows the general characteristics of teachers who participated in the online survey. Table 1: General characteristics of the online survey respondents Education Status Post-graduate degree 67% Bachelor’s degree 26% Doctoral degree 1% Other 6% Discipline Science 52% Arts 39% Commerce/Management 7% Other 2% ICT Access and Usage Computer (laptop/desktop) at home 83% Internet Access at Home 70% Smart Phone Access 99% Research question 1: Which areas of peak stage concern (as described in the SoCQ) are most prevalent among teachers during the First Bell programme? 31 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Using descriptive data, the highest level of concern was identified. The peak level of concern has the highest score of the seven phases. To determine the highest and second highest stage scores in the category of peak stage scores, the researcher followed the SoCQ manual’s instructions. The researchers averaged the raw score for each stage based on group data and referred to these averages as the percentiles score. The percentile score is a predefined score assigned to each raw score produced by the SoCQ. Individual and group peaks were compared to demographic information and free-form questions. This phase allowed the researchers to investigate why different stages were characterized by less or more significant concerns. The analysis of the top two issues offered further information about the kind of concern among high school teachers. As seen in table 2, the majority of respondents (26.5% or 53 respondents) scored highest on stage 0 (unconcerned). The overall number of responders for stage 5 (collaboration) and stage 1 (informational) was relatively comparable (48 and 49). There were no responses from instructors to the stage 4 (consequence) or stage 6 questions (refocusing). Table 2: Frequency of peak (highest) stage of concern among teachers Highest Stage of Concern Number of Respondents Percent of Respondents 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 57 43 36 12 0 52 0 200 28.5% 21.5% 18% 6% 0% 26% 0% 100% Table 3 shows teachers’ second highest stage of concern. Teachers indicated their second highest concern in two stages: stage 1 (informational) and stage 5 (collaboration). These findings suggest that teachers wanted more information and were interested in learning more about digital learning practised through the First Bell programme; however, teachers were not concerned about the First Bell programme’s consequences for students (as per stage 4). The high score in stage 5 indicates that teachers were very interested in learning from others (participating in collaboration) rather than leading collaboration themselves. Table 3: Frequency of second peak (highest) stage of concern among teachers Second Highest Stage of Concern 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Number of Respondents 25 57 30 26 0 57 5 200 12.5% 28.5% 15% 18% 0 28.5% 2.5% 100% Percent of Individuals Research question 2: How do teachers of Kerala describe their experiences during the First Bell programme? The qualitative section discuses teachers’ experiences during the First Bell programme. A semistructured interview question was used to elicit the teachers’ reactions to the current position of the First Bell programme and their pedagogical practices with digital learning. Twenty teachers were interviewed. The duration of the interview was about 15 to 20 minutes. Regarding the course content structure of the First Bell programme, including video, study materials, et cetera, teachers gave very good responses. The majority of the teachers (95%) had little concern with the course content, and 95% of them showed a positive attitude towards the course design of the innovation introduced. Course design is the process and methodology of creating quality learning environments and experiences for students. Through deliberate and structured exposure to instructional materials, learning activities and interaction, students are able to access information, obtain skills, and practise 32 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 higher-level thinking. The teachers believed that learning through a digital medium is innovative, supports setting the pace, builds a physical space intended for learning, and continues to encourage in the absence of daily face-to-face interaction. Also, the First Bell programme creates quality learning environments and a good learning experience for students. They argued that the First Bell programme provides good learning activities, interaction with new technology, and is a top-priority for engaging teaching and implementing active learning. With respect to student participation in digital learning, teachers and parents had some concerns, like student distractions, lack of in-person interaction, and isolated learners, et cetera. The analysis revealed that only a few teachers responded positively to questions on student participation. The study shows that the participation of students in the online programme was a big challenge because of lack of interest on the part of the students. CONCLUSION The main purpose of this study was to understand the concerns of high school teachers in Kerala, India, when the First Bell programme was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used multiple data points (the SoCQ instrument, open-ended concern statements, and interview questions) to collect evidence on teacher concerns. The quantitative phase, using the SoCQ instrument data, indicated that the informational aspect and collaboration were the major concerns. The qualitative phase, using open-ended statement and interviews, supported the evidence from the SoCQ instrument. This research has raised many questions in need of further investigation. A follow-up study could focus on the effect of intervention strategies to address teachers’ peak stage concerns. Also, further studies can use the innovation configuration dimension of the CBAM model, which looks into the operational aspects of innovation. REFERENCES George, A. A., Hall, G. E., & Stiegelbauer, S. M. (2006). Measuring implementation in schools: the stages of concern questionnaire. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Ghirardini, B. (2011). E-learning methodologies: A guide for designing and developing e-learning courses. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (1987). Change in schools: Facilitating the process. New York: State University of New York Press. Hall, G., & Hord, S. (2011). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Hall, G. E., Hord, S., Rutherford, W. L., Loucks, F., Huling, L. L., & Heck, S. A. (1982). Workshop on Innovation configurations: The Teachers’ Manual. University of Texas. Loucks, Horsley, S., & Stiegelbauer, S. (1991). Using knowledge of change to guide staff development. In A. Lieberman & L. Miller (Eds.), Staff development for education in the 90’s: New demands, new realities, new perspectives (2nd ed.) (pp. 15–36). Teacher College Press. McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in Education: A conceptual introduction (5th ed.). Longman. Oommen, M. A. (1992). The Kerala Economy. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH. Oommen, M. A. (1999). Kerala's Development Experience, Vol. 1 & 11. ed. Concept Publishing. Ramachandran, V. K. (1996). On Kerala's Development Achievements. In J. D. A Sen (Ed.), Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives (pp. 205–356). Oxford University Press. 33 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 FACE-TO-FACE VERSUS REMOTE LEARNING: STUDENT BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS THROUGH EDUCATIONAL DATA Martha Mosha Department of Social Sciences, School of Humanities, Society and Development, University of Namibia (marthamosha@gmail.com) Abstract At the University of Namibia (UNAM), courses were taught face to face using the blended learning approach through a learning management system (LMS), Moodle. Due to COVID-19, the courses had to be offered via remote teaching, which meant adopting and adjusting to the online learning approach. Since the introduction of LMSs, there have been new opportunities to use Big Data mining for education, also known as educational data mining (EDM). EDM was used in this study to unearth and compare student behavioural patterns during the face-to-face and remote learning of two courses offered in two different years. The one was during the time of COVID-19, and the other was the year prior to that. Analytics from log-in details, learning resources, discussion forums, chats, assessments, and use of plug-ins, such as the plagiarism software, were used to map out student behaviour. Key preliminary findings show that students increased their participation in forums and chats; there was not much of a difference in cases of plagiarism; and more students accessed Moodle through their mobile phones after moving from face-to-face to remote teaching. INTRODUCTION Educational data mining (EDM) is defined as an “interdisciplinary research area that deals with the development of methods to explore data originating in an educational context” (Romero & Ventura, 2010, p. 601). Owing to the enormous amount of data generated by learning management systems (LMSs), there is a need to use “Big Data technologies and tools into education, to process the large amount of data involved” (Sin & Muthu, 2015, p. 1035). EDM allows for one to analyse the mass amount of data gathered by an LMS, extract some useful results that can be used to improve students’ learning experience, advance the courses offered by an institution, and enhance educational processes. “Educational big data is at a point of its evolution where researchers and practitioners are transitioning from a point of mere awareness to action” (Quadir et al., 2020, p. 1552). Thus, this research aimed to analyse previous course records of two courses in two different years and map out the behaviour of students. The results then mapped out the learning style of the students, which may inform future course planning and designing. EDUCATIONAL DATA MINING “Students’ activities through learning management systems create large amount of data that can be utilized in developing the learning environment, helping the students in learning and improving the overall learning experience” (Sin & Muthu, 2015, p. 1035). This data, however, need to be transformed “into information and knowledge and provide services for educational decision making, teaching optimization and academic improvement” (Zhang & Qin, 2018, p. 83). EDM can be used in a number of ways, among others, for data visualisation and behaviour detection (Roy & Singh, 2017; Sin & Muthu, 2015). “Prediction and analysis of student academic performance are essential for student academic growth” (Zaffar et al., 2017, p. 7). “One of the biggest challenges that educational institutions face is the exponential growth of educational data and the transformation of this data to new insights that can benefit students, teachers, and administrators” (Romero & Ventura, 2010, p. 602). 34 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 “There are numerous approaches to analyze educational data, numerous tasks that are tackled and interesting findings that are discovered” (Merceron, 2015, p. 106). Some popular categories of data mining technologies include regression and prediction, classification, clustering and diagnosis (Aldowah et al., 2019; Asif et al., 2017; Berland et al., 2014; Dutt et al., 2015; Liñán & Pérez, 2015; Papamitsiou & Economides, 2014; Prakash et al., 2014; Roy & Singh, 2017; Sin & Muthu, 2015; Zhang & Qin, 2018). The cluster technique was used in this research. According to Vellido et al. (as cited in Asif et al., 2017, p. 180), “clustering students is a proper technique to find similar learning behaviours”. This is further explained by Berland et al. (2014, p. 210), who state that “cluster analysis finds the structure that emerges naturally from data, allowing researchers to search for patterns in student behavior that commonly occur in data, but which did not initially occur to the researcher”. In addition, “clustering in higher education might still be considered as an effective technique to group students based on their learning characteristics, individual learning style preferences, academic performance, and behavioural interaction” (Aldowah et al., 2019, p. 24). This research worked with forming clusters, as outlined in the framework, to find behavioural patterns that students share. THE CASE OF FACE-TO-FACE VERSUS REMOTE LEARNING The Department of Social Sciences of the University of Namibia (UNAM) offers the following courses during semester two of the university calendar: Digital Media (hereafter referred to as Course 1) and Mobile Journalism (hereafter referred to as Course 2). Digital Media is an examinable course, whereas Mobile Journalism is not, as it is a practical course. In 2019, the two courses were offered face to face with some elements being taken up online (i.e., blended mode). Elements such as assessments, learning resources, grades, and some forums were conducted online. However, this changed in 2020; due to COVID-19, the courses were offered fully online. It is the change in mode – from face to face to online – that led to this study so as to analyse if the change influenced student behaviour. UNAM uses Moodle as an LMS, which features Moodle Learning Analytics – a plug-in installed by the system administrator. “Most LMSs incorporate their own tools to automatically generate customizable statistics reports of course development, these are often quite basic” (Liñán & Pérez, 2015, p. 102). The data for the study were, therefore, collected from Moodle, and some data were analysed using Moodle Learning Analytics. FRAMEWORK The educational data mining framework was used. “[D]ata mining and big data integration on elearning process can derive the advance features such as pattern generation, pattern analysis, predictive analysis and knowledge discovery, which is needed to identify learning needs along with learners needs in future e-learning revolutions” (Udupi et al., 2016, p. 258). Figure 1 illustrates the framework, showing that data were collected from the LMS. The data underwent detection, processing and classification to prepare the data for analysis. The data were then analysed and grouped into clusters, which, in this case, were visualised to come up with findings. 35 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 1: The educational data mining framework. From Educational data mining and big data framework for e-learning environment by P. K. Udupi, N. Sharma and S. K. Jha, 2016, International Conference on Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (Trends and Future Directions) (ICRITO), p. 258–261. Copyright 2016 by IEEE. LIMITATIONS It must be noted that the move to the online mode of teaching was initiated by the move to remote teaching because of COVID-19. The students, and the whole world, at the time were undergoing a lot of change and unpredictability. This might influence the findings even though the students were supported in every way possible with pocket Wi-Fi and laptops to transition to remote teaching via online mode. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Ethical clearance to conduct this study was issued by UNAM. The datasets used in this study contained student names, thus care was taken not to have them revealed in the findings. The datasets were handled by only one person (the researcher), and all datasets are stored safely on a hard drive to be destroyed in future. METHODOLOGY The research design was quantitative with an exploratory approach. Datasets were gathered from Moodle course analytics; these included competency breakdown, logs, activity reports, course participation, activity completion content accesses and statistics. The datasets pulled all of the above from four courses: two from the year 2019, and the other two from the year 2021. The total population was as follows: 36 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 1: Dataset population and instances 2019 2020 Course 1 50 students Data Instances: 7 794 rows 38 students Data Instances: 21 095 rows Course 2 45 students Data Instances: 7 416 rows 40 students Data Instances: 19 855 rows Some data were analyzed through Moodle Learning Analytics. Other datasets were downloaded as comma-separated values (CSV) files, and some were cleaned up using Microsoft Excel. This is due to the fact that “[t]he collected data often contain some important information missing, incorrect or containing noise, inconsistency and other issues, data preprocessing technology can improve data quality to meet the requirements of educational data mining, common preprocessing operations can use data cleansing” (Zhang & Qin, 2018, p. 84). The result of these were analyzed using Orange, an open-source data visualization software program. Orange can produce graphs using visualization widgets, which “include scatter plot, box plot and histogram, and model-specific visualizations like dendrogram, silhouette plot, and tree visualizations, just to mention a few” (University of Ljubljana, 2021). Moreover, Orange “has a cleaner and easier to understand interface, with color-coded widgets differentiating between data input and cleaning, visualization, regression and clustering” (Slater et al., 2017, p. 92). Figure 2. Cycle of applying educational data mining in research. From “Predicting student performance in higher educational institutions using video learning analytics and data mining techniques,” by R. Hasan, S. Palaniappan, S. Mahmood, A. Abbas, K. U. Sarker and M. U. Sattar, 2020, Applied Sciences, 10(11), 3894 FINDINGS The research revealed a few interesting findings. It must be noted that the number of students enrolled for the two courses reduced in number from 2019 to 2020; however, Courses 1 and 2 had an increase in activity of 171% and 168%, respectively, in 2020. The way in which the students accessed the LMS was investigated, as access to LMSs through mobile devices is an increasing trend in online learning. Downloading of the Moodle mobile app is also promoted at UNAM due to easy access to 37 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 the chat feature, which minimises the need to set up a WhatsApp class group, as is the trend at the University. Figure 3 shows the way in which students accessed the course on Moodle, with the options being through the web browser or through the Moodle mobile app. In 2019, 98.96% of the students accessed Course 1 via the web compared to 1.04% who accessed it via the mobile app. In 2020, the same course had 94.76% of the students accessing from the web compared to 5.24% on the mobile app. Students in Course 2 had a similar pattern in both years, with 2019 seeing 98.98% accessed via the web compared to 1.02% via the mobile app. In 2020, Course 2 had 92.18% of the students accessing the course via the web compared to 7.82% via the mobile app. Figure 3: Way in which the students accessed the course from for Course 1-2019 (top left), Course 1-2020 (top right), Course 2-2019 (lower left) and Course 2-2020 (lower right) [Yaxis=Frequency, X-axis=Origin] Figure 4 shows the frequency of dates accessed in the semester, with the red line indicating the dates on which there was an assessment that had a specific submission deadline (note that this does not include assessments such as discussions, as these were ongoing assessments for a period of time). The figures for 2019 show that access to the courses was much later, with peaks around dates that an assessment was due. Some students, however, continued to access the course even after the semester was due. The figures for 2020 show that students almost evenly accessed the course all the way till the end of the semester, with peaks around dates that assessments were due. In this case, once the semester was over, the students stopped accessing the course. 38 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 4. Dates students accessed Course 1-2019 (top left), Course 1-2020 (top right), Course 2-2019 (lower left) and Course 2-2020 (lower right) [Y-axis=Frequency, X-axis=Dates in a semester] One of the interesting findings was the times that the students accessed the courses. Figure 5 shows the times that students accessed the courses, and it shows that in both courses, in 2019, the students accessed the course more during working hours. However, this pattern changed in 2020 where the students accessed the course throughout the day, with some reductions between the hours of 1am and 9am. The least accessed hour was 4am in both courses. Course 1 shows a peak within the hour of 1pm and 3pm, with the latter having the highest peak for 2019. Course 2 shows a peak within the hour of 9am, 10am, and 1pm, with the highest peak being at 10am for 2019. Figure 5. Times students accessed Course 1-2019 (top left), Course 1-2020 (top right), Course 39 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 2-2019 (lower left) and Course 2-2020 (lower right) [Y-axis=Frequency, X-axis=Time in 24 hours] Several components were accessed with the course, with general access to Moodle being the highest in all four cases as shown in figure 6. The next highest for 2019 were the quizzes, followed by assignments. This was not the case in 2020, as the next highest were the assignments followed by forums, then lessons, and then quizzes. The biggest change is the forums which moved from 0.17% in 2019 to 12.28 in 2020 for Course 1, and from 0.11% in 2019 to 15.85% in 2020 for Course 2. Figure 6: Components of the course accessed by students for Course 1-2019 (top left), Course 1-2020 (top right), Course 2-2019 (lower left) and Course 2-2020 (lower right) [Yaxis=Frequency, X-axis=Moodle Component] Figure 7 is scatter plots of all the activities mapped by the time of day they happened. This paints an overall picture of the activities that took place and is used to illustrate an overview of the activities. The plots show that for both courses, 2020 was a year with a number of activities throughout the day and the semester. 40 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 7: Scatter plot of events for Course 1-2019 (top left), Course 1-2020 (top right), Course 2-2019 (lower left), and Course 2-2020 (lower right) [Y-axis=Time in 20 hours, X-axis=Dates in a semester] DISCUSSION It was thought that with the move to remote teaching, most students would resort to using their mobile phones to access the course. This might have been the case, but students still accessed the course using the web browser instead of the mobile app. Efforts were made to communicate to the students the benefits of and instruction on switching to the mobile App; however, it seems not many students went for the option. It is lovely to discover that in 2019, the students accessed the course way past the finish date of classes. For Course 1, this could have been the case because they had an exam to write, hence they were seeking understanding. This phenomenon cannot be explained for Course 2, as there were no exams to be written. However, maybe the students accessed the course to check for their final continuous assessment marks. As for 2020, the students ended the activities in the course as the semester ended. This can be attributed to the fact that the semester ended late (into November), and fatigue kicked in as the semester and year seemed to had taken a toll on everyone. The peak in times that the students accessed Course 1 and 2 in 2019 follow the time schedule for face-to-face classes. This means then the students would log in to the course during class attendance. These findings could be explained by the fact that the students needed to access content for the class on Moodle. In addition, these times were the ones set for quizzes. The access to the course on Moodle shows interesting times for 2020 for both Course 1 and 2, as there were activities throughout the day, with a dip at 4am. This dip at this specific hour cannot be explained. One would have thought that the students would have chosen the telephone company’s “happy hour” of 12am to 6am to use the Internet, as surfing is free, but the numbers indicate something else. The difference in access to components is ascribed to the fact that there were more quizzes in 2019 compared to 2020, which saw a shift to more assignments. However, discussion forums came in at number three for both courses in 2020. This is because there were no face-to-face sessions; hence, discussions were at an appointed virtual meeting and these carried on to Moodle as others looked for understanding and/or wished to share their points of view. In the previous year, students were encouraged to assume uncompleted discussions online the case when class time is up and the 41 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 discussion is still strong. However, not many materialised. Most would wait until the next class to pick up the discussion or followed the lecturer to the office to finish the discussion. The research had hoped, but failed, to look at the issue of plagiarism, which is a growing issue in the online learning environment (Romero & Ventura, 2017). It is noted that “[r]esearchers have not addressed how data mining can be applied to plagiarism detection” (Huebner, 2013). In addition, due to the practical nature of the courses, there were not enough similar theoretical assessments that could be compared. CONCLUSION The results reveal a number of interesting facts that would aid in the course development update. The fact that students accessed the course online at all times of the day during lockdown allows for content to be developed in a more asynchronous manner to allow for access at a time that is convenient to the students. Strangely, the optimisation of free surfing hours during late night and early mornings was not taken up by most students. Other findings showed that the use of discussion forums increased in the 2020 course components in each course. This means the use of this component should be encouraged, especially for general discussions. Very few students used the Moodle mobile app. This app needs more promotion in the future, as this would ease access to the course and may even increase the number of chats that take place in a course. Future studies would hopefully look into the issue of plagiarism and how students fared in this regard. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the University of Namibia for granting research permission. REFERENCES Aldowah, H., Al-Samarraie, H., & Fauzy, W. M. (2019). Educational data mining and learning analytics for 21st century higher education: A review and synthesis. Telematics and Informatics, 37, 13–49. Asif, R., Merceron, A., Ali, S. A., & Haider, N. G. (2017). Analyzing undergraduate students' performance using educational data mining. Computers & Education, 113, 177–194. Berland, M., Baker, R. S., & Blikstein, P. (2014). Educational data mining and learning analytics: Applications to constructionist research. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 19(1–2), 205– 220. Dutt, A., Aghabozrgi, S., Ismail, M. A. B., & Mahroeian, H. (2015). Clustering algorithms applied in educational data mining. International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, 5(2), 112. Hasan, R., Palaniappan, S., Mahmood, S., Abbas, A., Sarker, K. U., & Sattar, M. U. (2020). Predicting student performance in higher educational institutions using video learning analytics and data mining techniques. Applied Sciences, 10(11), 3894. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10113894 Huebner, R. A. (2013). A Survey of Educational Data-Mining Research. Research in Higher Education Journal, 19. Liñán, L. C., & Pérez, Á. A. J. (2015). Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics: differences, similarities, and time evolution. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 12(3), 98–112. Merceron, A. (2015). Educational data mining/learning analytics: Methods, tasks and current trends. DeLFI Workshops, 101–109. Papamitsiou, Z., & Economides, A. (2014). Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining in Practice: A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Evidence. Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 49–64. Prakash, B. R., Hanumanthappa, M., & Kavitha, V. (2014). Big data in educational data mining and learning analytics. International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, 2(12), 7515–7520. 42 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Quadir, B., Chen, N. S., & Isaias, P. (2020). Analyzing the educational goals, problems and techniques used in educational big data research from 2010 to 2018. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–17. Romero, C., & Ventura, S. (2010). Educational data mining: a review of the state of the art. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews), 40(6), 601–618. Romero, C., & Ventura, S. (2017). Educational data science in massive open online courses. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 7(1), e1187. Roy, S., & Singh, S. N. (2017, January). Emerging trends in applications of big data in educational data mining and learning analytics. In 2017 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering-Confluence (pp. 193–198). IEEE. Sin, K., & Muthu, L. (2015). Application of Big Data in Education Data Mining and Learning Analytics-A Literature Review. ICTACT Journal on Soft Computing, 5(4). Slater, S., Joksimovic, S., Kovanovic, V., & Baker, R., & Gasevic, D. (2017). Tools for Educational Data Mining: A Review. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 42(1), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.3102/1076998616666808. Udupi, P. K., Sharma, N., & Jha, S. K. (2016, September). Educational data mining and big data framework for e-learning environment. In 2016 5th International Conference on Reliability, Infocom Technologies and Optimization (Trends and Future Directions) (ICRITO) (pp. 258– 261). IEEE. University of Ljubljana. (2021). Interactive Data Visualization. https://orangedatamining.com/home/interactive_data_visualization/ Zaffar, M., Hashmani, M. A., & Savita, K. S. (2017, November). Performance analysis of feature selection algorithm for educational data mining. In 2017 IEEE Conference on Big Data and Analytics (ICBDA) (pp. 7–12). IEEE. Zhang, W., & Qin, S. (2018, March). A brief analysis of the key technologies and applications of educational data mining on online learning platform. In 2018 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Big Data Analysis (ICBDA) (pp. 83–86). IEEE. 43 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 STUDENT PLAGIARISM DETECTION IN DISTANCE HIGHER EDUCATION Booysen Sabeho Tubulingane NUST, University of Giessen/UNICAF (ngane432@gmail.com) Abstract Students are usually cautioned by their universities to refrain from practising plagiarism when completing their academic work. However, plagiarism is still a serious problem experienced by private and public universities in both developed and developing countries. Consequently, many universities around the world have implemented measures to combat plagiarism in students’ academic work. Yet, some of those efforts might have led to contributing to the general student confusion about what plagiarism is, as similarity detection software such as Turnitin is regarded as plagiarism-detection software. Thus, there was a need for this study that proposes an innovative way of estimating plagiarism from analysing students’ continuous assessment and final subject marks. A longitudinal, descriptive and predictive quantitative research design was applied in this study. All complete numeric records (29 343) of students’ continuous assessment and final subject marks for the academic years 2018 and 2019 at a Namibian university were applied in the study. Descriptive statistics in the form of averages were computed, and linear regression was used to model and predict the contribution of the continuous assessment marks to the final student subject marks. During the 2019 academic year, plagiarism was estimated at 7% and 3% for distance and contact education, respectively. Analyses of distance data conveyed a moderate correlation of 0.56 between continuous assessment and final subject marks. Thus, only 31% of the alterations in the student final subject marks is explained by continuous assessment marks of distance students. To reduce plagiarism among distance students, it is recommended that a switch be implemented from assignment-based (written without invigilation at own time) continuous assessments to face-to-face written tests (in the presence of invigilators). This new proposed continuous assessment model is likely to increase the influence of continuous assessments on the final subject marks of distance students. INTRODUCTION Students are usually cautioned by their universities to refrain from practising plagiarism when completing their academic work. This is accomplished when students are educated about how to avoid plagiarism in the set university anti-plagiarism policies and measures (Sibomana et al., 2018). However, plagiarism is still a serious problem experienced by private and public universities in both developed and developing countries (Anney & Mosha, 2015; Ison, 2018; Lilian & Chukwuere, 2020). Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s ideas (words/sentences) in the exact or modified way as your own without acknowledging the source of such idea/words. In other words, according to Selwyn (as cited in Heckler & Forde, 2015, p. 61), plagiarism is the “reproduction of text from other academic sources, such as journal articles, books, or lecture notes without adequate acknowledgement of the source, copying some or all of other students’ assignments”. Many universities around the world have implemented measures to combat plagiarism in students’ academic work. However, some of those efforts might have led to contributing to the general student confusion about what plagiarism is, as similarity detection software such as Turnitin is regarded as plagiarism-detection software (Louw, 2017). This is because a “similarity is not necessarily an act of plagiarism if referenced correctly; in the same vein, a stolen idea, worded differently, is not picked up by software like Turnitin. Moreover, Turnitin would not have seen similarities between the two songs or the two movies, for example” (Louw, 2017, p. 122). 44 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The current study provides statistical analyses aimed at detecting plagiarism per respective education offering types (contact and distance) based on students’ continuous assessment and final subject marks. The study also determines to what extent the application of information communication technologies (ICTs), such as computers and the Internet, influences plagiarism among distance students. LITERATURE REVIEW Why students plagiarise A student’s lack of understanding is positively associated with plagiarism (Finchilescu & Cooper, 2018). A lack of understanding is likely to lead to students experiencing difficulties to complete their university schoolwork, particularly when they are faced with family responsibilities. According to Musingafi et al. (2015), the most reported challenges that accelerate plagiarism among distance students are lack of sufficient time for study (time management), difficulties in accessing and using ICTs (including the Internet), ineffective feedback, and lack of study materials. Similarly, Bibi and Hafeez (2018) state that the common situations that lead to students plagiarising are poor time management and less or no skill to integrate others’ intellectual work and ideas. Furthermore, students who are afraid of failure to cope with their academic work are more likely to take risks, which include plagiarising. For instance, Sibomana et al. (2018) contend that students plagiarise due to laziness, lack of confidence and an inability to correctly reference or cite source materials. Some students plagiarise unconsciously and unwillingly, while others do it consciously and willingly. Plagiarism by study offering mode Evidence is accumulating on how to make online or distance learning effective, as concerns are growing about problems that distance education pose for students’ academic integrity (Bell & Federman, 2013). There is a high rate of academic dishonesty in the online/distance learning environment to the point that it is now a standing issue that is challenging higher education institutions (Lilian & Chukwuere, 2020). For instance, plagiarism is more than 12 times more likely to be committed by distance students than by face-to-face students (Lucky, Branham, & Atchison, 2019). According to Bell and Federman (2013, p. 177), academic dishonesty in a distance/e-learning environment is typically characterised by the following offenses: “acts of plagiarism, using concealed notes to cheat on tests, exchanging work with other students, buying essays or, in some extreme and notorious cases, asking others to sit examinations for you”. This suggests that “distance learning assessments can be artificially inflated by cheating, suggesting that evaluations of distance learning should be considered in light of academic dishonesty” (Lucky et al., 2019, p. 414). Information communication technologies as a catalyst for plagiarism The emergence of modern information technologies, such as the Internet, has made the control, managing and elimination of plagiarism very difficult (Lilian & Chukwuere, 2020). Lilian and Chukwuere (2020) discovered that plagiarism occurs more over the Internet because a load of material is readily available for students to copy and paste when completing their academic work. In the same way, Heckler and Forde (2015) and Ison (2018) argue that the Internet has accelerated the rate at which students practise plagiarism in institutions of higher learning. This is detailed and highlighted below by Ison (2018) and Levine and Pazdernik (2018), respectively: Even with improved technologies to detect plagiarism, such effort requires time and energy on the part of faculty and the institution not to mention the cost of its adoption. Complicating the upholding of academic integrity is the ease of access to information made available by the Internet. Students are presented with almost endless amounts of text from which to cut and paste through a simple online search (p. 293). The expansion of the Internet has led to increased access to databases and other information that students can easily use when completing assignments. For instance, the ready availability of information through the Internet makes it easier for students to copy and paste information 45 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 into academic work. The growth of the Internet has also led to an increased number of online educational programmes offered by higher education institutions, which adds another dimension to the possibility of academic dishonesty (p. 1094). Based on the above statements, the Internet has become the centre of attention in the fight against plagiarism in the higher education sector. Internet plagiarism is common when students copy and paste information from the Internet without acknowledging sources. Plagiarism is also more evident with online course offerings in cases where a university lacks an effective and efficient verification system to ensure that people who are writing online tests are registered students for that specific academic course. Solution to plagiarism An effective anti-plagiarism programme can reduce the number of incidents of plagiarism among university students (Levine & Pazdernik, 2018). In addition to Levine and Pazdernik’s (2018) suggestion, such a programme can focus on the use of policies and procedures and can educate students on plagiarism by providing good student support through the institution’s writing centre and incorporation of Turnitin plagiarism-detection software. Moreover, plagiarism education programmes can target students who plagiarise because of laziness, poor time management and planning skills. Such students need to know that people are credited because of what they have done and that the purpose of the course is to learn and develop skills and not just to graduate (Harris as cited in Sibomana et al., 2018, p. 20). Likewise, Heckler and Forde (2015) acknowledge that when a university has a culture of academic accomplishment by emphasising learning over grades, connecting assignments to course objectives and deterring cheating, plagiarism is more likely to be reduced. This infers that there is a relationship between students’ cultural background and plagiarism. However, Ison (2018) contends that there is no relationship between students’ cultural background (in Europe, Africa, Middle East, USA, China, India) and the incidence of plagiarism. According to Bibi and Hafeez (2018), solutions to plagiarism can include, but are not limited to: • • making students undergo a mandatory pre-programme course focusing on how to properly reference academic materials and how to avoid plagiarism. In addition, lecturers can develop a guide that encourages or educates students about scholarly thinking and how to maintain proper documentation during their academic assignment development; there is a need for the establishment of online student support services that aim to communicate the university’s convention on plagiarism, urging students to implement anti-plagiarism behaviours to stop the violation of intellectual property rights in face-to-face or open distance learning. Lilian and Chukwuere (2020, p. 14685) derived the following recommendations to combat student plagiarism in the higher education sector: • • • students and any content generator (writers and lecturers) should be educated and informed about the consequences of plagiarism; students should be taught how to reference properly in any form of assessment; higher education institutions should provide a mandatory module covering plagiarism for students to be informed. The literature above shows that plagiarism is a serious challenge for higher education institutions, particularly for open, online and distance programmes offered around the world. Numerous authors also highlight ICTs as a catalyst for plagiarism; ICTs make it easy for students to plagiarise. The literature also shows that when students do not understand their academic materials, they revert to academic dishonesty to do their academic work. Moreover, solutions to plagiarism involve educating students about how to properly acknowledge others’ work and promoting an anti-plagiarism mindset among students. 46 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Continuous assessment and final subject marks There is a high correlation between the marks obtained by students in their coursework and their examination marks, as students rely a lot on the marks obtained in their continuous assessments to expand their examination marks (Pudaruth et al., 2013). However, if students are not marked properly for continuous assessments and if they are given high marks, they can become overconfident and may not prepare themselves adequately for examinations. Reboredo (2017) discovered that continuous assessment grades were a poor indicator of final examination grades in a micro-economics course. This was due to students with higher continuous grades focusing more on subjects with which they were struggling. Likewise, Al-Maskari (2017) revealed that there is no strong correlation between continuous assessment marks and final examination marks. This weak correlation between continuous assessment and final marks indicates that assessment criteria are perhaps not set well. The high success rate in the continuous assessments likely indicates inflation in marks, and this gives the students an inaccurate indication of their performance (Al-Maskari, 2017). Poor student academic performance monitoring through continuous assessments can result in students articulating poor final subject marks after examinations. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research design A longitudinal, descriptive and predictive quantitative research design was applied in this study. No sampling was done, as all complete records of Namibian university students’ continuous assessment and final subject marks for the academic years 2018 and 2019 were applied in the study. Descriptive statistics in the form of mean or averages were computed for continuous assessment and final subject marks variables. Linear regression was used to model and predict the contribution of continuous assessment marks to final student subject marks. Study variables The plagiarism variable was established based on the differences between students’ continuous assessment marks and final subject marks. Therefore, final subject marks represent the dependent variable, while continuous assessment marks represent the independent variable. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Student academic attainment per study mode and plagiarism The students’ academic achievement based on continuous assessment and final subject marks after examinations was used to estimate plagiarism per respective education offering type. Plagiarism in the form of the difference between the average continuous assessment marks (ACAMs) and the average final subject marks (AFSMs) for distance students was established at 7% for the year 2019. Moreover, a 3% difference (between ACAMs and AFSMs) was calculated for students who were enrolled in contact classes for the same 2019 period, as is shown in table 1 below. The results in table 1 are in line with those of Bell and Federman (2013) and Lilian and Chukwuere (2020), who established that plagiarism in distance education is much higher than in contact or face-to-face education offering. The high plagiarism among distance students is mainly catalysed by the lack of time to study or to complete academic work by the majority of employed distance students (Finchilescu & Cooper, 2018; Musingafi et al., 2015). Family responsibilities also negatively impact distance students, as less time is allocated to studying, which leads to less understanding of academic materials, thus they resort to hiring other persons to complete their assignments. 47 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 1: Average continuous assessment marks and final subject marks per offering mode Offering type Contact (Full time and Part time) Distance Grand Total 2018 Academic Year Average of Average of ACAMs Continuous Final Subject AFSMs (%) Assessment Marks Marks (AFSMs) (%) (ACAMs) (%) 61 59 2 62 61 54 58 8 3 2019 Academic Year Average of Average of Fi- Plagiarism = Continuous nal Subject ACAMs Assessment Marks AFSMs (%) Marks (AFSMs) (%) (ACAMs) (%) 62 59 3 61 62 54 58 7 4 Figure 1 presents a scatter plot with a positive correlation of 0.86 between final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for contact students. An increase in continuous assessment marks would increase final student subject marks. Figure 1: Average continuous assessment marks and final subject marks for contact offering Table 2 introduces a linear regression analysis between final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for contact students. A unit increase in the continuous assessment mark would increase the final subject mark by 0.92 units. Moreover, the p-value is < 0.05, stipulating that the relationship between the final subject mark and continuous assessment mark is significant when testing at a 0.05 significance level. Furthermore, the adjusted R-squared is 0.74, which indicates that 74% of changes or variations in the student final subject marks are explained by continuous assessment marks. 48 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 2: Linear regression model summary: final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for contact students Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|) (Intercept) 2.346597 0.146184 16.05 <2e-16 *** Continuous Assessment Marks 0.921395 0.002335 394.63 <2e-16 *** Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 5.819 on 53684 degrees of freedom, Multiple R-squared: 0.7437, Adjusted R-squared: 0.7436, F-statistic: 1.557e+05 on 1 and 53684 DF, p-value: < 2.2e-16 Figure 2 shows a scatter plot of the final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for distance students. There is a positive correlation of 0.56 between the final subject marks and continuous assessment marks variables. This means that when the continuous assessment mark increased, the final student subject mark of the distance student also increased. Figure 2: Average continuous assessment marks and final subject marks for distance offering The linear regression results in table 3 show that a unit increase in the continuous assessment mark would result in an increase of 0.57 units of the final subject mark in a distance study mode. The relationship between the final subject mark and continuous assessment mark is significant at a 0.05 significance level, as the p-value is < 0.05 in table 3. The adjusted R-squared is 0.31, which reveals that only 31% of changes or alterations in the students’ final subject marks are explained by continuous assessment marks. The other variations (69%) of the final subject marks are explained by factors that are not included in the linear regression model presented in table 3. This indicates that continuous assessments completed by distance students only contributed 31% towards their academic success. 49 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 3: Linear regression model summary: final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for distance students Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|) (Intercept) 19.252848 0.449981 42.79 <2e-16 *** Continuous Assessment Marks 0.567763 0.007269 78.10 <2e-16 *** Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 9.619 on 13375 degrees of freedom, Multiple R-squared: 0.3132, Adjusted R-squared: 0.3132, F-statistic: 6100 on 1 and 13375 DF, p-value: < 2.2e-16 Distance education discipline and plagiarism Students who were enrolled for subjects in the computing and informatics discipline articulated a high level of plagiarism, as the difference between the continuous assessment and final subject marks was 18%, as per table 4 below. The continuous assessment marks were higher than the final subject marks; this may mean that the continuous assessments were correctly set and did not underestimate the students’ capabilities and, therefore, distance students were given accurate feedback (Pudaruth et al., 2013). Nevertheless, distance student continuous assessments are done without the presence of tutors – so, some of the students are highly engaged in plagiarism. Many distance students at the Namibian university have a habit of hiring other persons to complete their assignments that constitute their continuous assessment marks, thus failing their examination, as is evidenced by the lower final subject marks. Computing and informatics distance subjects such as Management Information Systems (MIS) require students to use ICTs, including the Internet, which accelerates plagiarism in the discipline (Heckler & Forde, 2015; Ison, 2018; Lilian & Chukwuere, 2020). Table 4: Final subject and continuous assessment marks and plagiarism among distance students Discipline Computing and Informatics Health and Applied Sciences Human Sciences Management Sciences Nat Resource & Spatial Science Grand Total Average of Continuous Assessment Marks (ACAMs) (%) 69 60 59 64 69 61 Average of Final Subject Marks (AFSMs) (%) 52 50 56 54 64 54 Plagiarism (%) 18 10 3 11 5 7 There was a moderate (neither strong nor weak) positive correlation of 0.65 between the final subject marks and continuous assessment marks of distance computing and informatics students, as shown in Figure 3. 50 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 3: Average continuous assessment marks and final subject marks for distance computing and informatics students The linear regression results in table 5 specify that a unit increase in the continuous assessment marks increased the final subject marks of the distance computing and informatics students by 0.81 units. The relationship between the final subject marks and continuous assessment marks is significant at 0.05 significance level, as the p-value is < 0.05 in table 5. The adjusted R-squared is 0.41, which exposes that only 41% of changes in the student’s final subject marks are explained by continuous assessment marks. This shows that continuous assessments completed by distance computing and informatics students only contributed 41% towards their final grades. The availability of ICTs for educational purposes nowadays has led to a rapid shift from a traditional distance (where assignments were physically mailed) to online education (where assignments/examinations are completed online), and there is a need to improve the quality and variety of students’ assessment methods and strategies to reduce plagiarism in addition to just depending on plagiarism detection software (McCord, 2008). This can include randomly assigning assignment topics to online students so that each student produces unique assignment solutions. Also, the online or distance student assessments model need to require students to provide solutions to assignments in component parts, which provides an opportunity for the lecturer to evaluate student work at multiple points during the semester, thereby increasing the chance for the lecturer to note structural and stylistic changes in students’ work as the semester unfolds. Table 5: Linear regression model summary: final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for computing and informatics distance students Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|) (Intercept) -8.7440 12.4792 -0.701 0.488 Continuous Assessment Marks 0.8064 0.1640 4.916 2.37e-05 *** Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 9.78 on 33 degrees of freedom, Multiple R-squared: 0.4227, Adjusted Rsquared: 0.4052, F-statistic: 24.16 on 1 and 33 DF, p-value: 2.366e-05 51 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 4 presents a scatter plot stipulating a positive correlation of 0.73 between final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for distance Human Sciences students. Figure 4: Average continuous assessment marks and final subject marks for distance Human Sciences students Table 6 shows that a unit increase in the continuous assessment marks resulted in an increase of the final subject marks of distance Human Sciences students by 0.80 units. The p-value is < 0.05, which indicates that the relationship between the final subject marks and continuous assessment marks was significant at a 0.05 significance level. The adjusted R-squared is 0.53, which uncovers that 53% of variations in the students’ final subject marks were explained by continuous assessment marks. This shows that continuous assessments completed by distance Human Sciences students contributed 53% towards their final subject marks. Table 6: Linear regression model summary: final subject marks and continuous assessment marks for human sciences distance students Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|) (Intercept) 8.69747 0.59469 14.62 <2e-16 *** Continuous Assessment Marks 0.80168 0.01004 79.87 <2e-16 *** Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 7.175 on 5735 degrees of freedom, Multiple R-squared: 0.5266, Adjusted R-squared: 0.5265, F-statistic: 6380 on 1 and 5735 DF, p-value: < 2.2e-16 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The study shows how statistical analyses of students’ continuous assessment and final subject marks can be employed as a plagiarism detection mechanism. Plagiarism was estimated at 7% and 3% for distance and contact education offerings, respectively, for the 2019 academic year. A strong correlation of 0.86 between continuous assessment and final subject marks for the contact education offering mode was established. Analyses of distance data conveyed a moderate correlation of 0.56 between continuous assessment and final subject marks. A unit increase in the continuous assessment marks would increase contact students’ final subject marks by 0.92 units. The continuous assessment 52 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 marks for students enrolled in contact mode explain 74% of variations of their final subject marks. When it came to distance students, only 31% of the alterations in the students’ final subject marks was explained by continuous assessment marks. Moreover, a unit increase in the continuous assessment marks only adds 0.57 units to the final subject marks. Distance subjects under the computing and informatics discipline articulated a high level of plagiarism of 18% due to the high usage of ICTs and the Internet during the completion of continuous assessments. To reduce plagiarism among distance students, it is recommended that a switch be implemented from assignment-based (written without invigilation at own time) continuous assessments to face-to-face written tests (in the presence of invigilators). This new proposed continuous assessment model is likely to increase the influence of continuous assessments on the final subject marks of distance students, as plagiarism would be reduced. Acknowledgements Appreciation goes to the conference organisers for awarding the author a grant to attend the NOMSA21 Open Up and Connect: Education in a Digital Era conference. REFERENCES Al-Maskari, A. (2017). Comparison between continuous assessment and final examination scores. OQNHE Conference 2015, Muscat, 24–25 February. Quality Management & Enhancement in Higher Education. Anney, V. N., & Mosha, M. A. (2015). Student’s plagiarisms in higher learning institutions in the era of improved internet access: case study of developing countries. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(13), 203–216. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1080502 Bell, B., & Federman, J. (2013). E-learning in postsecondary education. Futur Child, 23(1), 165–185. Bibi, T., & Hafeez, A. (2018). Exploration of plagiarism practices in open and distance learning (ODL). Pakistan Journal of Distance & Online Learning, May, 49–62. Finchilescu, G., & Cooper, A. (2018). Perceptions of academic dishonesty in a South African university: A Q-Methodology approach. Ethics & Behavior, 28(4), 284–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2017.1279972 Heckler, N. C., & Forde, D. R. (2015). The role of cultural values in plagiarism in higher education. Journal of Academic Ethics, 13(1), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-014-9221-3 Ison, D.C. (2018). An empirical analysis of differences in plagiarism among world cultures. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 40(4), 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2018.1479949 Levine, J. & Pazdernik, V. (2018). Evaluation of a four-prong antiplagiarism program and the incidence of plagiarism: a five-year retrospective study. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(7), 1094-1105. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1434127 Lilian, N., & Chukwuere, J. (2020). The attitude of students towards plagiarism in online learning: A narrative literature review. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services. Louw, H. (2017). Defining plagiarism: Student and staff perceptions of a grey concept. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(5), 116–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.28535/31-5-580 Lucky, A., Branham, M., & Atchison, R. (2019). Collection-based education by distance and face to face: learning outcomes and academic dishonesty. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 28(4), 414–428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-019-9770-8 McCord, A. (2008). Improving online assignments to deter plagiarism. Etec.Hawaii.Edu, May, 41– 49. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&btnG=Search&q=intitle:Improving+Online+Assign ments+to+Deter+Plagiarism#0 Musingafi, M. C. C., Mapuranga, B., Chiwanza, K., & Zebron, S. (2015). Challenges for open and distance learning (ODL) students: experiences from students of the Zimbabwe Open University. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(18), 59–67. 53 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). (2021). Turnitin Student Quickstart. https://www.nust.na/sites/default/files/documents/TurnItIn%20-%20Student%20Guide.pdf Pudaruth, S., Moloo, R., Chiniah, A., Sungkur, R., Nagowah, L., & Kishnah, S. (2013). The impact of continuous assessments on the final marks of Computer Science modules at the University of Mauritius. Proceedings of Global Engineering, Science and Technology Conference, 3-4 October 2013, Bay View Hotel, Singapore, ISBN: 978-1-922069-32-0 Reboredo, J.C. (2017). Do continuous assessment results affect final exam outcomes? Evidence from a microeconomics course. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences, 4 (1), 88–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/muse.2017.6548 Sibomana, E., Ndayambaje, I., & Uwambayinema, E. (2018). Plagiarism in higher education environment: causes and solutions. Rwandan Journal of Education, 4(2), 15–23. 54 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 EMERGENCY REMOTE LEARNING ON FIRST-YEAR LLB STUDENT SUCCESS RATES Sharna-Lee Clarke IIE Varsity College Deputy Head of School of Law (fkaplan@varsitycollege.co.za) Fiona Kaplan IIE Varsity College Head of School of Law (sclarke@varsitycollege.co.za) Abstract In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national disaster globally and in South Africa, with the country placed under a strict lockdown. This led to emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) in the higher education sector. At the time, the 2020 first-year LLB cohort at a higher education institution (HEI) had just begun their first semester in higher education with traditional face-to-face learning. With the announcement of the national lockdown, these students were suddenly faced with vastly different teaching and learning strategies. Many of these students had no experience in online learning and were still transitioning to higher education. Traditionally, first-year students are most vulnerable to poor performance, as they move from secondary to higher education. Moreover, the LLB degree is historically one with high drop-out and low throughput rates. Emergency remote learning (ERL) has exacerbated this position and has adversely impacted the success rates of first-year LLB students at an HEI. Therefore, the purpose and significance of this paper are to determine what the impact of ERL was on the success rates of first-year LLB students at an HEI. This is necessary to determine how best to support these students and personalise their learning in subsequent years of their LLB degree and for further research in legal education. This was done by a literature review of secondary sources of law and legal education, an empirical analysis of primary data related to the 2020 module success rates (MSRs) of LLB first-year modules at an HEI and finally, a comparative assessment of the MSRs of the 2020 first-year cohort and previous cohorts who had experienced traditional face-to-face teaching and learning in their first year of study. INTRODUCTION The declaration of a national state of disaster in South Africa in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic saw the move from traditional face-to-face teaching and learning in the classroom, with a lecturer and peers present, to emergency remote learning (ERL) in a private and isolated environment for many higher education institutions (HEIs). ERL is defined as “a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery model due to crisis circumstances” (Hodges et al., 2020). At the time, the first-year Bachelor of Laws (LLB) students at an HEI had commenced lectures on 12 February 2020 – a mere four weeks prior to the declaration of the national state of disaster on 15 March 2020. The declaration of the national state of disaster disrupted the academic calendar, as the HEI prepared a shift of its teaching and learning strategy to remote learning platforms. This resulted in a month’s break in contact with students and the resumption of lectures on 15 April 2020. From this date, while under a hard lockdown, the HEI conducted all lectures remotely via the learning management system (LMS) – a distance learning system that provided students with the opportunity to attend virtual classrooms from their homes. There are various factors to consider when determining the impact of ERL on first-year LLB students at an HEI. While the physical and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was considerable 55 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 (Aristovnik et al., 2020), the national state of disaster and lockdown exacerbated its impact on particularly first-year students, who had just begun their tertiary studies and transition from secondary to higher education. This paper focuses on the main factors that affect the success rates of first-year LLB students under normal circumstances, such as the transition from secondary to higher education and the historical challenges of the four-year LLB degree (Whitear-Nel & Freedman, 2015). This is necessary to determine the position and context of first-year LLB students when the abrupt transition to ERL took place and to ultimately determine its impact on LLB success rates. The purpose of this paper is thus to determine the impact of ERL on the success rates of first-year LLB students at an HEI. The authors predict that ERL had a negative impact on student success rates. Thus, to ascertain the actual impact of ERL on the 2020 first-year LLB student success rates, the researchers conducted a literature review of secondary sources of law and legal education, an empirical analysis of primary data related to the 2020 module success rates (MSR) of first-year LLB modules at an HEI and finally, a comparative assessment of the MSRs of the 2020 first-year cohort and previous cohorts who had experienced traditional face-to-face teaching and learning in their first year of study. This paper starts with a discussion of the background and context of this analysis. Key terms, as they relate to this study, are also defined. Thereafter, factors that affected first-year LLB students are considered, namely the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national state of disaster and lockdown on higher education and student readiness generally, as the students transitioned from secondary to higher education. Understanding the context and background of the LLB degree, the impact of COVID-19 on higher education and the transition from secondary to higher education in South Africa is crucial to determine the impact of ERL on first-year LLB students. Thereafter, the paper delves into the MSRs of first-year LLB students and provides an analysis of their results when compared to the 2019 cohort to determine the impact ERL had on first-year LLB student success rates. BACKGROUND TO AND CONTEXT OF THIS STUDY Brief background to legal education in South Africa The current legal education system in South Africa is reflective of the exceedingly narrow legal profession that offers primarily only two options to LLB graduates, which is to become either an attorney or an advocate (Leach, 2019). At present, legal education therefore consists of two distinct phases (the two-phase approach) that prepare students for admission to the legal profession. The first phase is the acquisition of the LLB degree by a student at a public university or an HEI in South Africa, and the second phase is a practical component and is provided by legal practitioners as vocational training. Completing both phases are prerequisites for admission to the legal profession. A long history of inequality in education and the socio-economic divide of the Apartheid society are what first led to the introduction of the four-year undergraduate LLB degree to South Africa in 1997 by way of the Qualification of Legal Practitioners Amendment Act. The LLB programme provided a more streamlined and cost-effective degree for persons to gain access to the legal profession by implementing a four-year professional qualification that permitted graduates access to phase two of the current South African legal education system. Previously, persons wanting access to the legal profession were required to acquire a Baccalaureus Procurationis degree (BProc) or any three-year undergraduate degree and a post-graduate LLB degree before commencing phase two. This was a lengthy and costly process that excluded most South African persons, particularly persons who were previously disadvantaged under the Apartheid regime. Thus, the purpose of the four-year LLB degree was to address the historical legacy of Apartheid and its effect on legal practice, which was mainly a lack of sufficient representation and inclusion in the legal profession (Greenbaum, 2010.) However, 24 years after the introduction of the first LLB, the two-phase approach to legal education still reflects the divided legacy of Apartheid. The present narrow pathway to becoming a legal practitioner continues to permeate society with the ever56 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 widening socio-economic gaps between South African persons in that LLB graduates who choose the attorney route do so with very low starting salaries, while those who choose the advocate route do so without any pay initially. Many LLB graduates from previously disadvantaged backgrounds are responsible for providing for their extended families or require a place to live and transport to their place of employment and cannot afford this on minimal remuneration. Therefore, the narrow legal profession remains elitist in its exclusion, as many LLB graduates are unable to obtain practical vocational training. While most people would assume that students attending an HEI are from affluent backgrounds, this is not true, as South Africa’s middle class has grown and diversified in racial terms (Soudien et al., 2021). Thus, the HEI student body consists of students from various backgrounds and financial positions. Defining key terms of this study The internal academic management platforms of the HEI were consulted to measure student success. A comparative assessment of the MSRs of the respective 2019 and 2020 first-year LLB cohorts was undertaken using two of the internal systems. The first internal system produced an academic result report, displaying each student’s individual assessment results at a modular level. The second results analysis dashboard provided access to key performance measures drawn from other internal management and student information systems. MSRs are utilised to measure student success in each first-year LLB module. MSRs is the percentage of students who passed the module relative to the number of students who registered for the first-year LLB module. The terms module success rate and student success rates are used interchangeably and have the same meaning. This study also refers to module throughput rates and pass rates. A module throughput rate refers to the percentage of students who were able to complete the module successfully within the time stipulated for that specific module, whereas the module pass rate refers to the percentage of students who have passed and completed the module. THE CHALLENGES IN LEGAL EDUCATION The challenges of the transition from secondary to higher education In addition to the South African socio-economic context, it is necessary to consider the nature of education in South Africa to fully understand the impact of the COVID-19 national state of disaster on higher education. The South African education system is still attempting to divest itself of the Apartheid regime (Soudien et al., 2021). The legacy of Apartheid has resulted in a vastly unequal South African schooling system which amplifies the already difficult transition from secondary education to higher education (Dlamini, 1992). Research on the schooling system has shown that it is largely characterised by levels of inequality (Hunter, 2019). Seventy-five per cent of all schoolgoing children in the system attend no-fee schools, which serve previously disadvantaged communities (Spaull, 2019). These schools are characterised by shortages of educators, poor discipline, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of resources (Parker et al., 2020). This unequal schooling system was recently confirmed in the media – it was found that COVID-19 highlighted the inequality in the schooling system (Isaacs, 2021). These socio-economic factors are relevant to this paper, as South African achievement in higher education is still linked to race and socio-economic inefficiencies (Soudien et al., 2021) and thus has a knock-on effect on students’ success in higher education. A study of drop-out rates at public universities in South Africa indicated that 30% of students drop out in the first year of study, with a further 20% dropping out during the second and third years of study (Scott et al., 2007). Like the inequalities of the past that still permeate the legal profession and the LLB degree today, these inconsistencies have resulted in an unequal South African basic and secondary schooling system. This leads to discrepancies in the education backgrounds of students, which play a pivotal role in student success rates (Greenbaum, 2010). Coupled with the unequal educational background with which students enter higher education, English is not a first language of many students despite 57 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 English being the language of instruction at the HEI. These factors reinforce the cycle of disadvantage that then infuse the legal profession (Greenbaum, 2010). The general impact of the COVID-19 national state of disaster and lockdown on higher education With the scramble to ERL when the national state of disaster was declared in South Africa in March 2020, all HEIs had to develop creative ways to present theoretical and practical modules and alternative ways of assessing students. As a result, academics had to quickly upskill themselves in this regard. While the 2015 #FeesMustFall movement may have prepared some of the public universities for this transition to some extent (Hedding et al., 2020), the HEI under analysis was not affected by the #FeesMustFall movement and thus had not previously been exposed to ERL. While the move to ERL forced academics to re-assess their teaching and learning pedagogy and re-evaluate their assessment methods, in a country such as South Africa, other factors affected the successful move to ERL. To understand the impact of the COVID-19 national state of disaster and lockdown on higher education, it is important to consider the South African socio-economic context. While South Africa has attempted to alleviate impoverishment, poverty rates remain exceptionally high (Soudien et al., 2021) and factors such as high data costs and access to technological devices pose a stumbling block to successful ERL. There are some data-free academic resources available online; however, unfortunately, the online learning management system (LMS) used by the HEI is not hosted in South Africa and therefore could not be accessed free of charge. Thus, the HEI negotiated with cellular network providers to provide data and technological devices to students who required these at a preferable rate. Although most attention was focused on the move to ERL in higher education, little consideration was given to the broader impact of the COVID-19 national state of disaster and the lockdown on academics and students (Hedding et al., 2020). At the time, many academics and students were working and studying under heightened anxiety. Some had young children to care for at home and had to juggle child care, home schooling older children, working remotely, and studying. In addition, the psychological effect of forced solitude cannot be ignored. The lockdown affected all persons differently, with some being entirely isolated by themselves without family or friends. Therefore, this study cannot generalise or highlight any groups of students as being more vulnerable than others under the COVID-19 national state of disaster and lockdown. Instead, it is important to see all students as a collective in this situation (Hedding et al., 2020). MODULE SUCCESS RATES FOR THE 2020 COHORT OF FIRST-YEAR LLB STUDENTS AT A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION New LLB student registrations in 2020 The HEI under analysis offered the LLB degree in three provinces of South Africa, namely the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The table below indicates that in 2020, the HEI acquired a total number of 635 registrations for the first-year programme of the LLB. Table 1: Quantitative summary of 2020 first-year registrations New students Returning students Full load 228 Repeat students 298 89 58 Total students 635 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 2: Demographics of the 2020 new first-year LLB students African Coloured Indian/Asian White Other/Unknown 81 31 53 59 4 The 2020 LLB cohort consisted of 228 new students who had not been registered at the HEI previously and registered for the first time in 2020; 298 returning students who registered for a full load of first-year modules in 2020 and had previously been registered at the HEI; and 89 returning students who repeated a few of the first-year modules while also being registered for second-year modules and had also previously been registered at the HEI. Therefore, 407 first-year LLB students in 2020 had been registered at the HEI previously and had been exposed to the traditional face-toface teaching and learning pedagogy in previous years. In 2020, 228 first-year LLB students registered at the HEI for the first time and, as mentioned above, had experienced traditional face-toface teaching and learning for one month before the declaration of a national state of disaster and lockdown and the subsequent abrupt move to ERL. Therefore, only 36% of registered first-year LLB students in 2020 were students who had gone into ERL without any experience of traditional face-toface teaching and learning and assessment styles. The focus of this research was on these identified students so as not to skew the findings reported in this paper by including returning students who had experience of traditional face-to-face pedagogies before the COVID-19 national state of disaster. In addition, the data indicate that 165 of the 2020 new first-year LLB students were from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. This equates to 72% of the 2020 new first-year LLB students being from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. The demographics of the new LLB first-year students in 2020 are relevant to this paper, as this data relate to the challenges faced in legal education (discussed in section 2.1 above) and the transition to higher education (discussed in section 3.1 above) and shows that the 2020 new first-year LLB students registered at the HEI under analysis were predominantly from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. LLB module success rates in 2020 The following table provides a summary overview of first-year LLB students’ module throughput, distinction, pass and dropout rates: Table 3: Percentage of module throughput, distinction, pass and dropout rates 1 Module Throughput Rate % Module Distinction Rate % Module Pass Rate % Module Dropout Rate % 2019 2020 Variation 2019 2020 Variation 2019 2020 Variation 2019 2020 Variation Cape Town 68 64 -4 28 38 10 85 83 -2 20 23 3 Gauteng 68 63 -5 30 36 6 87 81 -6 22 22 0 KZN 74 71 -3 29 41 12 88 87 -1 17 18 1 Overall average % 70 66 -4 29 38 9 87 84 -3 20 21 1 The data used in table 3 were obtained electronically from the institutional data analytics platform. The information provided by this system was used to make evidence-based decisions in respect of the HEI’s teaching and learning strategy and student support. 1 59 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The table above shows an overall decrease in module throughput rates and pass rates in relation to the 2020 first-year LLB cohort. This means that in all regions where the LLB is offered by the HEI, there was a decrease in the number of students who were able to complete their first-year modules within the required time of one year when compared to the 2019 first-year LLB cohort. This decrease in throughput and pass rates is aligned with the initial prediction of the authors that ERL could have a negative impact on student success rates. As a result of the decrease in throughput and pass rates, the 2020 LLB first-year cohort may have had to repeat first-year modules in 2021 and was, therefore, possibly unable to progress to all their second-year modules. In addition, these students are likely to be unable to complete their LLB degree within the minimum time of four years. This decrease in throughput and pass rates has a further impact on the retention rates of the HEI, as experience has shown that unsuccessful students often do not return to complete their studies in subsequent years. This is confirmed by the increase in dropout rates, which indicates an overall average of a 1% increase in the dropout rates in 2020. The variation in the dropout rate is difficult to attribute solely to the impact of ERL without comparing the variation to the dropout rate in previous years. The overall average dropout rate in the LLB degree at the HEI in 2018 was 40%. High dropout rates are generally attributed to the fact that students often embark on studies in a field because they believe they are competent in that area and university study is the next logical step in their lives. They quickly discover that they are not competent in that area or that their expectations and assumptions of the area of study or chosen profession were incorrect. This often results in dropouts and changing of qualifications, which has become commonplace in universities today (Willmot & Perkin, 2011). However, notably, for the LLB degree, previous studies have shown that only 22% of LLB students graduate within the minimum time. This is the lowest percentage of graduation rates when compared to other disciplines at HEIs (Greenbaum 2010). Data acquired directly from LLB students at the HEI who had dropped out in 2018 indicate various reasons for doing so, such as gaining admission to the LLB at another institution; financial reasons; a lack of interest in the law; and changing to a different qualification offered by the HEI.2 The HEI that is the focus of this study introduced its first LLB cohort in 2018 and, therefore, the 2018, 2019 and 2020 dropout rates could not be compared to previous years. However, it is interesting to note that the data show a significant decrease in the dropout rate from 2018 to 2019 and then a slight increase in 2020 with the introduction of ERL. It can be deduced that although it is a slight increase, the impact of COVID-19 and ERL on higher education are contributory factors to the increase of 1% in the dropout rate in 2020. The authors recommend further study on this issue to determine what the other related factors are to the student dropout rate. By comparison, the increased college student dropout rate in the United States was even more evident. Of the 2.6 million students who had started college in the autumn of 2019, 26.1% did not return in 2020. This figure was an increase of two percentage points over the previous year and the highest share of students not returning for their second year of tertiary studies since 2012 (Krupnick, 2022). It is interesting to note an increase in the number of students who obtained distinctions for their modules. Most noteworthy is the high rate of distinction passes (41%) in the KZN region. Distinction passes in the LLB degree are usually rare and rates are low due to the nature of this professional degree. The authors deduct that the increase in distinction rates is likely due to the assessment strategy that was implemented in 2020, which resulted in all formative and summative assessments being written as take-home assessments where students were provided with five days to complete and submit their assessment as well as the opportunity to resubmit their assessment at a later stage after having made improvements to their initial submission according to their lecturer’s feedback. 2 The data were acquired directly from students who had dropped out via brief telephone conversation and e-mail. 60 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Therefore, it would be interesting for further research to be conducted to determine why these rates increased substantially in 2020. The new first-year LLB students were registered for 12 modules in 2020 that were evenly spread across two semesters. Four of these modules were non-law modules, which provided the students with two compulsory modules to prepare them for higher education and an opportunity to choose two elective modules offered in a discipline other than law. The remaining nine modules were compulsory law modules. The table below illustrates the MSRs at a modular level, which is necessary to determine priority or at-risk modules and those that require intervention and support. For this paper, the focus is on the law modules only. Modules Law of Persons and the Family 1A Fundamentals of the South African Legal System Law of Persons and the Family 1B English for Law General Principles of Criminal Law Foundations of the South African Law Work Integrated Learning 1 Table 4: Comparison of Module Success Rates in 2018/2019/2020 2018 72 65 63 68 47 62 67 2019 79 74 57 70 52 58 74 2020 73 64 47 64 64 52 67 As predicted, table 4 indicates a decrease in the MSRs of all first-year law modules in 2020 when compared to the 2019 results. All first-year law modules saw a decrease in the MSRs of 6% or more when compared to the 2019 results. Notably, the MSRs in 2018 showed an increased variation in 2019 in the majority of modules. While the MSRs in 2020 were mostly above the pass rate of 50%, it is still concerning that the variation in results dropped. This relates to the module pass rates provided in table 3, which indicate a variance in module pass rates in 2020 when compared to 2019. There is one module, the Law of Persons and the Family 1B, which had a module success rate of 47% in 2020. This MSRs was below the pass rate of 50%. However, this module is historically one with low pass rates at the HEI and, therefore, interventions and support in this regard are discussed in the next section. Nevertheless, the 2020 first-year LLB cohort had mostly passed their modules despite the decrease in overall MSRs when compared to their 2019 peers. Despite having mostly passed their modules, due to the complex background of the LLB degree and legal profession, a student’s module result is exceptionally important for the student to gain access to the second phase of legal education – namely, vocational training mentioned in the section above. Acquiring a position for vocational training at a law firm is extremely competitive in South Africa, and law firms shortlist students for vocational training based on their LLB module results. Therefore, the variation in the 2020 MSRs could potentially impact this cohort’s access to phase two (vocational training) of legal education and ultimately the student’s access to the legal profession. INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORT OFFERED DURING EMERGENCY REMOTE LEARNING At the onset of the national state of disaster and lockdown, the need to support students academically, physically and psychologically was quickly identified at the HEI. As the LLB students came from diverse social and economic backgrounds, the need to orientate and address the varying levels of student preparedness and accessibility to resources was critical to enable students to continue their studies remotely, to set them up for success, and to enable them to feel emotionally secure in their 61 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 learning. Owing to the limited scope of literature on ERL that was available at the time and the essential need to provide adequate interventions to support the students, there was insufficient time to conduct a formal research-based needs assessment of student preparedness. Thus, the HEI undertook an informal needs analysis telephonically to determine a foundation for training students on the use of remote learning tools. The outcome of this assessment illustrated that many students would require support and access to the requisite technologies to support their continued learning in an online environment. To address this, the HEI provided data to students to ensure that there were no constraints to accessing the LMS and other academic material or resources. In addition, academic staff were sensitised to facilitate online lectures in a “data light” environment. For example, lecturers ensured that real-time engagement with students was kept short and that only the most pertinent sections of an online lecture were made available on the institutional LMS for students to download at a later stage. To develop a greater understanding of online teaching and learning, the LLB academic staff received structured training on the pedagogical approach to online teaching and marking, which was implemented as a quick response to the declaration of the national state of disaster and lockdown. Moreover, students and academic staff received scaffolded training on the LMS from the teaching and learning specialist staff at the HEI during the period March to April 2020. This assisted students and academic staff to become familiar with and to engage more confidently in a virtual classroom environment. Every effort was made to ensure that “no student was left behind”. Furthermore, a short learning programme outlining useful tips on how to study effectively in an online environment was released on the institutional LMS and made available to all students. To support students academically in the transition to ERL and a new and different assessment model, continuous assessment marks (CASS) were waivered. Under normal circumstances, students need a weighted average CASS mark of 40% to gain entry into the summative assessment of a particular module. CASS was waivered, in line with the HEI’s commitment to “no student left behind”, to provide every student with access to the summative assessments. In addition, students were given five days within which to complete and submit their formative and summative take-home assessments via the LMS. The HEI took this decision to counter the data and connectivity challenges faced by many students. In addition to the initial academic support to enable a smooth transition to ERL, the Student Support Services department of the HEI made non-academic support available for extended periods to support students with any physical, psychological and emotional difficulties, as well as other methods of support to assist students in staying motivated and productive during this challenging period. The level of student engagement during online lectures was tracked by the academic support team. Personal contact was made telephonically and electronically with students identified as being academically “at risk”. Students who had not participated in any online lectures owing to technology issues encountered at home or due to struggling with connectivity issues were categorised as “at risk”. Consequently, during the period 17 June to 31 July 2020, additional online support for certain firstsemester LLB modules was provided for the at-risk first-year LLB students to assist them in preparing for their summative assessments and successfully completing their academic year. This additional support, called “boot camp(us)”, entailed workshop-like sessions provided on campus in a face-toface environment prior to the summative assessment period for those students who had not been able to participate in the online process. With the transition to ERL, the HEI identified the need to develop alternative ways of delivering the practical aspects of the LLB curriculum. This entailed the moving of practical tasks to the online environment rather than being held as in-person interactions. For example, traditionally first-year LLB students participated in a face-to-face Moot Court competition as one of the components of their work-integrated learning module intending to expose students to trial advocacy skills from their first year of studies. However, in 2020, participation in the Moot Court competition was held online via 62 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 the LMS. Moreover, the criteria for the assessment thereof were adapted to suit an online environment. The need to create opportunities for students to communicate beyond the classroom was identified by Garcia as one of the most challenging communication problems to ERL during the COVID-19 pandemic (Garcia-Verdrenne et al., 2020). Therefore, to support students further, lecturers were encouraged to engage with students using the discussion forum facility on the LMS to clarify any task instructions and facilitate collaboration for any group tasks assigned to students. The discussion forum and “breakout room” tools were also utilised extensively. A “breakout room” is a private online space where smaller groups of students and lecturers can meet separately from the larger classroom (Garcia-Vedrenne et al., 2020). A specific number and/or group of students per room can be set in advance, or students can be assigned to groups randomly by the LMS. This enabled students to communicate with their lecturer and with their peers through group work and class discussions, thus providing an alternative opportunity to engage without the ability to have face-to-face meetings in a physical lecture room. Further support for the 2020 first-year LLB students was provided in the development of detailed lesson plans outlining the content, pre- and post-reading and activities to be completed for each specific topic in a module. In addition, short instructional videos on key concepts, with a maximum duration of 15 to 20 minutes, were created by subject matter experts to introduce the students to new study material that would also be covered during online lectures, using platforms such as the LMS, PowerPoint and/or YouTube. The provision of the short instructional videos and additional study materials allowed students to access these resources asynchronously and on multiple occasions whenever they felt the need to do so. LESSONS LEARNT AND THE WAY FORWARD This section aims to present both the lessons learnt and challenges experienced in relation to student success rates during the national state of disaster for the 2020 first-year LLB students at the HEI. In response to the seismic disruption of student learning during the national state of disaster, which continued throughout the 2020 academic year, regular communication with the LLB students to assess their specific learning needs was a critical factor in the transition from face-to-face tuition to ERL. Academic staff had to respond to the challenges presented by the need to transition to ERL with creativity, agility and compassion for students. A longitudinal study into the student interventions provided for this cohort during COVID-19 could be conducted in future years to assess their level of preparedness for legal practice. The scarcity of interpersonal relations during ERL resulted in students feeling somewhat detached and demotivated. This was a challenge faced by many of the 2020 first-year LLB students and was addressed by the HEI through their Student Support Services department. However, a lesson learnt is to be more aware of the holistic needs of students – particularly new first-year students who are still transitioning to higher education in times of crisis, such as the national lockdown – and to be more cognisant of their psychological and emotional needs and not focus solely on their academic needs. A positive takeaway from the experience of ERL is that the academic staff at the HEI were given the opportunity to re-evaluate their online teaching practices. This included the development of both synchronous and asynchronous activities for the first-year LLB students to engage with the study material through the provision of lesson plans, introductory videos and learning activities prior to each online lecture. This resulted in the creation of a more flexible and inclusive approach for students to acquire conceptual knowledge of foundational legal concepts. Furthermore, it gave lecturers the opportunity for self-reflection and to upskill themselves in an evolving world where skills in online teaching and learning are becoming a prerequisite. One of the initial challenges of the transition to ERL was that the HEI did not foresee the COVID-19 pandemic continuing for the prolonged period that it did. Initially, the transition to ERL was believed to be temporary and, therefore, as South Africa moved down the levels of lockdown, the HEI made an intentional effort to bring students back to campus, in classrooms, for face-to-face lectures. 63 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 In the second semester of 2020, a revised teaching and learning model was introduced by the HEI that consisted of the contact time for each module being divided as follows: 50% of online lectures; 25% of face-to-face lectures; and 25% of self-directed learning (SDL). In the latter category, students were expected to engage with the extra academic material and resources provided for their modules, including the videos that were created by tenured lecturers, and lecturers were tasked with providing meaningful feedback on activities completed and to engage with students individually. Importantly, for LLB students, SDL equips students with skills that go beyond the lecture room and often emulate professional practice (Gibbons, 2002; Pedley & Arber, 1997). Although this revised model was a necessary effort to recoup the remainder of the academic year, more cognisance should have been taken of the physical and psychological impact of the national state of disaster and lockdown on academic staff and students. For example, many academic staff members and students were daunted by the prospect of returning to campus for face-to-face lectures. To provide support in this regard, the HEI decided to live stream face-to-face lectures for students who were unable to physically be on campus for the face-to-face lecture. This, in turn, placed a burden on lecturers to upskill in the use of technological devices necessary for the live streaming and other considerations when teaching to a physical class and others streaming into the lecture. This model also meant that the HEI had to renovate lecture venues to ensure that social distancing was observed. As a result, classes had to be split to ensure that the lecture venue capacity was not exceeded, which resulted in lecturer workloads increasing, live-streaming equipment had to be acquired, and data needed to continue being supplied to students with data-related challenges and who needed to live stream their lectures. Not only was this a time-consuming and expensive exercise, but the student attendance of face-to-face lectures was poor despite all the necessary precautions having been taken to ensure the safety of students and staff. CONCLUSION The rich history of the offering of the professional LLB degree in South Africa has illustrated that this is a challenging qualification for new students to grapple with. This contextual reality coupled with the historical legacy of Apartheid and its effect on legal practice make the completion of the LLB degree even more challenging in its exclusivity; there is a lack of consideration of socioeconomic factors that impact students and persons in the legal profession. In addition to the socioeconomic considerations, it is imperative to consider the South African legacy and its relation to secondary education. This impact, which has led to an unequal South African schooling system, has a knock-on effect on the ability of new students to transition from secondary education to an HEI, as many new students do not have the necessary skills to cope with higher education. When analysing student success rates, it is important to remain cognisant of the challenges outlined above, as most of the students at the HEI are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already difficult position that students found themselves in and impacted student success rates. With the national state of disaster, the HEI was challenged with the rapid move to ERL and alternative ways of assessing students. Both the academic staff and students were required to upskill their technology skills rapidly, and both groups were also challenged by the physical and psychological impact of being confined to their homes due to public health concerns – some with a lack of technological access and/or some having to contend with increased domestic responsibilities and having to make the move to ERL. The findings of this study revealed that only 36% of first-year LLB students in 2020 were new students and, therefore, these students were the focus of this paper. This is because these students did not have much exposure to and experience of traditional face-to-face teaching and learning before being forced to grapple with ERL, whereas returning students had experienced a normal academic year, with traditional face-to-face teaching and learning in 2019 prior to the national state of disaster. In addition, the demographics of this group of new students indicated that 72% of students registered at the HEI for the 2020 first year of the LLB degree were from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and, therefore, the demographic challenges are valid and relevant to this cohort of students. These 64 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 socio-economic challenges coupled with the traditional challenges of the LLB degree, the physical and psychological impact of the COVID-19 state of disaster and lockdown and ERL were bound to have an impact on student success rates of this new cohort of LLB students. This research found that despite the MSRs of most of the law modules undertaken by this cohort in 2020 being above the pass rate of 50%, there was an overall decline in the module throughput and pass rates, an increase in module dropout rates and, interestingly, an increase in module distinction rates compared to 2019. Moreover, when considering specific LLB MSRs at the first-year level, it was found that all MSRs declined by 6–10% year on year. While most students passed their first-year LLB modules, the lower-than-usual pass rates may potentially impact this cohort’s access to the extremely competitive legal profession, where results are often consulted before offering students placements at law firms for their vocational training. On the other hand, the increase in the distinction rate may positively impact those students’ ability to acquire placement for vocational training and, ultimately, entry into the legal profession. The reflection on the HEI’s response to the transition to ERL has been most valuable in identifying ways in which student support services can be enhanced. It is clear that the HEI put many interventions put in place to support students and academic staff in the transition to ERL and the successful completion of their first-year modules. The physical need for data and technological devices was provided for by the HEI as well as psychological support through the Student Support Services department. However, the authors are of the view that there is potential for the improvement in the HEI’s support of students with their transition to higher education generally. Further research into whether this will have the desired knock-on effect on academic success rates can be conducted at a future date. One of the primary lessons learnt during the ERL period was the need for agility and adaptability. Both students and academic staff showed great ability in these characteristics and took the transition to ERL mostly in their stride. The opportunity for academic staff to upskill in an evolving world was beneficial to all stakeholders, as the way we live, work and study has been forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like all new experiences, some aspects of ERL worked well, while others did not. The use of the LMS for live online lecture sessions, breakout rooms and discussion forums was a great success in creating opportunities and a sense of community for engagement between lecturers and students, and amongst students and their peers. Similarly, the HEI’s decision to include SDL in a module’s contact time was beneficial to the first-year LLB students, as it mirrored professional legal practice and allowed students some autonomy and responsibility for their learning. On the other hand, the HEI quickly learnt that the multiple submission assessment strategies were burdensome on lecturers and not always ideal for students. The way forward is positive and has room for further research on this topic. The authors are keen to continue their research and determine the perceptions of LLB students and academic lecturing staff concerning the transition to ERL and the HEI’s response to ERL, as well as to determine the impact of the 2020 MSRs on the subsequent years of study for this LLB cohort. In addition, after the 2020 first-year LLB cohort has graduated and entered the world of work, it would be interesting to evaluate whether, if at all, ERL has had an impact on their abilities in the workplace. Considering the above, this paper has met its stated purpose and confirmed the authors’ prediction in that the 2020 national state of disaster negatively impacted the MSRs of first-year LLB students in the 2020 academic year. It is recommended that further studies be conducted to determine what other factors contributed to the increased dropout rates of first-year LLB students in 2020. REFERENCES Aristovnik, A., Keržiˇc, D., Ravšelj, D., Tomaževiˇc, N., & Umek, L. (2020). Impacts of the 65 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 COVID-19 pandemic on life of higher education students: A global perspective. Sustainability (Switzerland), 1–34. Dlamini, C. C. (1992). The law teacher, the law student and legal education in South Africa. South African Law Journal, 109(4), 595–610. Garcia-Vedrenne, A. E., Orland, C., Ballare, K. M., Shapiro, B., & Wayne, R. K. (2020). Ten strategies for a successful transition to remote learning: Lessons learned with a flipped course. Ecology and Evolution, 2020(10),12620–12634. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6760 Gibbons, M. (2002). The self-directed learning handbook: Challenging adolescent students to excel. Jossey-Bass. Greenbaum, L. (2010). The four-year undergraduate LLB: Progress and pitfalls. Journal of Juridical Science, 35(1), 1–27. Hedding, D. W., Greve, M., Breetzke, G. D., Nel, W., & Van Vuuren, B. J. (2020). COVID-19 and the academe in South Africa: Not business as usual. South African Journal of Science, 116(7– 8), 1–3. Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, M. (2020). The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teachingand-online-learning. Hunter, M. (2019). Race for education: Gender, white tone, and schooling in South Africa. Isaacs, B. (2021, August 23). Covid-19 has exposed the gulf between the rich and the poor in SA education. IOL. https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/opinion/covid-19-has-exposed-the-gulfbetween-the-rich-and-the-poor-in-sa-education-a2f96702-f4a2-48e5-ba90fb558048cf59?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=I wAR1hQ5lT1q5oVrY0OFiPkPOIi272gAArIrO3SYsN_gOEFIcgbWWhgomCt20#Echobox= 1637967153 Kruipnick, M. (2022, February 10). More college students are dropping out during Covid. It could get worse. The Guardian. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2022/feb/10/college-students-dropout-covid-pandemic Leach, N. The Paralegal and the Right of Access to Justice (unpublished LLD thesis). University of the Western Cape, (2017), 59. Parker, R., Morris, K., & Hofmeyr, J. (2020). Education, inequality, and innovation in the time of COVID-19. https://www.jet.org.za/resources/theme-9-final-july-2020-parker-et-al.pdf. Pedley, G. E., & Arber, A. (1997). Nursing students’ response to self-directed learning: An evaluation of a learning process applying Jarvis’ framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(2), 405‒11. Scott, I., Yeld, N., & Hendry, J. (2007). Higher education monitor no.6: A case for improving teaching and learning in South African Higher Education. The Council on Higher Education, Pretoria, 10. Soudien, C., Reddy, V., & Harvey, J. (2021). F. M. Reimers (ed.), Primary and Secondary Education During Covid-19, 303–325. Spaull, N. (2019). Equity: A price too high to pay? In N. Spaull & J. Jansen (Eds.), South African schooling: The Enigma of inequality: A study of the present situation and future possibilities. pp. 1–24. The Qualification of Legal Practitioners Amendment Act 78 of 1997. Whitear-Nel, N., & Freedman, W. (2015). A historical review of the development of the postapartheid South African LLB degree - with particular reference to legal ethics. Fundamina, 21(2), 234–250. Willmot, P., & Perkin, G. (2011). Evaluating the effectiveness of a first-year module designed to improve student engagement. Engineering Education, 6(2), 57, 69. https://doi.org/10.11120/ened.2011.06020057 66 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 AN INVESTIGATIVE STUDY OF OPINION MINING ABOUT ELEARNING AND TRANSFORMATION THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Shubham Dubey University of Debrecen, Hungary (shubhamdubey1312@gmail.com) Prasun Sharma Etvos Lorand University, Hungary Abstract Several innovations and strategies were executed during the period of COVID-19, resulting in a huge e-learning acceptance rate among learners. Numerous educational tools, platforms, and products as a service came in contrast during COVID-19. Both teachers and students have accepted the electronic means of learning optimally. This study investigated the level of acceptance and changes that took place during the pandemic. This includes opinion mining about ICT in education and expected transformation in pedagogy. The data from a survey were used for an opinion and association analysis of several factors that affect learners’ expectations in order to adopt a virtual mode of learning. The data were collected from 8 392 respondents during the pandemic when schools and colleges were shut in India. Around 25% of the total respondents admitted that ICT had transformed their learning habits and countered the shortcomings of the traditional learning setup. Out of 8 392 respondents, 7 392 (88%) realized and stated that ICT-supported learning could raise educational standards. The majority (85%) believed that ICT-enabled learning could supplement classroom learning. Moreover, the mutual relation between the opinion of respondents and the factors associated with e-learning and the transformation that took place during the pandemic were investigated. After analyzing the data, one can say learners have accepted the electronic mode of learning because of several handy tools, portals, resources, and quality content. Of course people complained about less interaction with respect to the face-to-face mode, stress and eye strain, addiction to technology, etcetera. In this study, the Apriori algorithm was used to find relations among several factors that needed to be analyzed for e-learning. This research is useful for the future researcher and policymakers when it comes to implementing and planning ICT-supported education at a further level and for a longer duration. Keywords: e-learning, opinion mining, association analysis, Apriori algorithm, ICT in education INTRODUCTION The world of academics is changing rapidly. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought some coincidental positive impacts too (Mishra et al., 2020). The world has embraced the ICT-supported educational setup (Ali, 2020). However, there is no doubt that several hitches hinder the success of the e-learning setup. Educational data mining has become a well-known field after the growth of ICT-supported education (Baker & Yacef, 2009). In the contemporary era, there are several social sites, social platforms and forums that are optimally exploited by learners of all fields. Several studies are conducted on finding an association among several factors that affect the education system. In ICTsupported education, there are several factors that affect readers’ motivation. An experimental study was conducted about this phenomenon (Dubey & Marton, 2021). Classification techniques like the KNN algorithm, the decision tree algorithm, the SVM algorithm, the Naïve Bayes and Random Forest algorithms are very famous algorithms (Witten & Frank, 2002; 67 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Zaki et al., 2014). These are frequently used algorithms in academics to achieve classification tasks for different purposes. Classification can be concluded as an association rule too (Liu et al., 2001). An association rule is an antecedent and consequent notation of a frequent itemset. “A⇒B” is an association rule that denotes that A and B are highly associated for certain support and confidence values (Han et al., 2011; Zheng et al., 2001). The first step to find the association rule is to get the frequent itemset. Later in the second step, the rules are made based on step 1. If the values are quantitative, one can easily find a relation between attributes using correlation (Pearson coefficient), regression, or some other schemes (Sheugh & Alizadeh, 2015). However, when the attributes are qualitative, it becomes very difficult to find an association among them. This research is a classic example of such issues – applying a quantitative algorithm to a qualitative dataset that is transformed into quantitative dataset and again re-transformed to the qualitative dataset. LITERATURE REVIEW Online learning was merely considered an experiment before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic made us realize the urge of online learning. This unprecedented situation of COVID brought about radical transformation in the existing education system. This led to the unexpected and forceful implementation of online learning processes (Ionescu et al., 2020). Online education platforms and their execution were put to the test to prove their worth. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning came as an unknown and unpracticed tool, but with the time, many technical and pedagogical amendments were made. Quality improvement of several online libraries was demanded to meet learners’ satisfaction (Dubey et al., 2020). When lockdowns were implemented everywhere, it was recommended that online education be implemented to continue education and school activities. Initially, students and teachers were struggling, and there were some flaws in online learning platforms (Baber, 2021). Gradually, teachers and students learned to deal with technical problems and to choose the right platform for their convenience. Studies (Baber, 2021; Bączek et al., 2021) have shown that not only students have accepted online learning, but teachers have also left the zone of discomfort with online education. There is a gradual positive progression in the level of acceptance among teachers (Mseleku, 2020). Some studies also investigate the level of satisfaction from e-learning among students and teachers; mixed reviews have been provided in this regard (Al-Okaily et al., 2020; Baber, 2020). This highlights the need for further enhancements and improvements (Dubey et al., 2020; Giray, 2021). In many studies, comparative evaluation was done of the acceptance of online learning among students and teachers from pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19. They found that prior to the pandemic, teachers and other educators had numerous doubts about the implementation of online learning and they showed less interest in trying out online learning in their classroom (Amir et al., 2020; Olum et al., 2020). However, during the pandemic, the same teachers had completely changed their attitude towards online learning. Teachers are coming up with suggestions for the betterment of online learning, and it is changing rapidly (Ibrahim et al., 2021; Puljak et al., 2020). If we look at technical enhancement and improvements made by the online learning platform to make things more systematic, easy and effective, countable changes have been made in this dimension and have also been well analyzed and reported by Radha et al. (2020). According to Zalat et al. (2021), a techno-savvy pedagogical dimension has been introduced during the pandemic, where teachers moved out of their comfort zone and regularly worked hard to match the rhythm. To the maximum extent, this dimension had a significant effect on the quality of online learning in the years 2019 to 2021 (Khan et al., 2021). The discussion above indicates that several studies have been conducted in the field of ICT-supported education, and they have shown success as well. However, when it comes to the feedback analysis or opinion analysis of learners during COVID-19, there is a big research gap. This research gap was filled in the present study. 68 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 METHODOLOGY Dataset The dataset used for the research was open-source data. This was available in an open-source data library known as Kaggle. The data were gathered when the first lockdown was implemented in India. During the lockdown, data administrators implemented online learning using WhatsApp. Later, facilitators asked for learners’ feedback and opinions regarding their experience of the established ICT-supported learning setup in WhatsApp. A total of 8 392 responses were captured for the purpose. The link to the data is https://www.kaggle.com/hemantapalivela/student-learning-using-whatsapp-incovid19. There were 43 columns in the feedback data. These were reduced to certain numbers when features were selected for the analysis of association. The list of selected attributes is shown below: A1: Integration of ICT in academics is important A2: ICT can deal with the shortcoming in traditional and classical academic patterns A3: ICT has increased the communication between instructors and students A4: ICT-supported education is a supplement to face-to-face communication pattern A5: Instructors use WhatsApp to teach and motivate you to use ICT for academics A6: Instructors share the study materials and e-content as complement using WhatsApp A7: Instructors permit uploading assignments using WhatsApp A8: WhatsApp groups in the class support announcements and meeting scheduling A9: WhatsApp has allowed communication with peers studying at other universities A10: WhatsApp supports 24x7 contact facility with teachers and students A11: There is more frequent interaction between instructors and students due to WhatsApp A12: WhatsApp motivates you to overcome reservedness to talk with instructor and students A13: WhatsApp helps out to share study material A14: Is “lack of time” a main barrier to integration of ICT in learning? A15: Is “syllabus pressure” a main obstacle to assimilation of ICT in learning? A16: Is “infrastructure inability” a main barrier to integration of ICT in learning? A17: Is “addiction to the technology” a main obstacle to amalgamation of ICT in learning? A18: Is “not interacting face-to-face with people” the major obstacle to integration of ICT in academics? A19: Is “non-reliability of online content” the chief obstacle to assimilation of ICT in learning? A20: Is “need internet connection all the time” the major difficulty for addition of ICT in academics? A21: “Stress” is the main problem in ICT-supported learning A22: “‘Information overload’ stress” is the main problem in ICT-supported learning A23: Reliability and distractions are the main problems in e-learning Apriori algorithm 69 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The data were analyzed for rule mining; the rules were used for further inference mining. To find considerable and valid association rules, there was a need to find the frequent itemset. Apriori algorithm uses the concepts of frequent items (Han et al., 2011). Two terms drive the frequent set mining process until the rule mining, namely support and confidence. Support: Support can be understood as interestingness. In a generic way, one can understand it as the frequency of an item or a set of items with respect to the total number of transactions (Bhandari et al., 2015). Support count is the number of times an item or an intended itemset appears. Item “P” appeared four times, so the support count for {P} was 4, which is 100% (table 1). Confidence: Confidence of an association rule is basically the ratio of the counts of transactions having all the items of a consequent and an antecedent, and the count of transitions having all items in an antecedent (Han et al., 2011). Table 1: Transaction and items Transaction Items R1 P,S,T,U R2 P,Q R3 S,Q,P R4 S,T,P,Q,U The table of the frequency is shown below. Table 2 is derived from table 1. Table 2: 1-Frequent itemsets Itemset {P} {Q} {S} {T} {U} Frequency 4 3 3 3 2 The minimum support count for the rule establishment was 3, which is 60% of the total number of transactions (i.e., 4). So, itemset {U} did not qualify for the next iteration. Table 3 represents the two frequency tables. Table 3: 2-Frequent itemsets Itemset Frequency {P,Q} 3 {P,S} {P,T} {Q,S} {Q,T} {S,T} 3 2 2 1 2 Again, itemsets {P,T}, {Q,S},{Q,T} and {S,T} had support less than or equal to 2. This is less than 60% (i.e., < 3). So, itemset {P, Q} and {P,S} participated in the next iteration (Moens et al., 2013). Table 4 shows the 3-frequent itemsets. Table 2: 3-Frequent itemsets 70 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Itemset {P,Q,S} Frequency 2 Support of {P,Q,S} is less than minimum support value (3). Hence, {P,Q,S} was not part of further analysis. So, the itemsets that qualified for the association rule were {P,Q} and {P,S}. The rules were then checked for confidence (table 5). Table 3: Rules with support and confidence value Association rule Support Confidence Selection P⇒Q ¾=0.75 ¾=0.75 (75%) X Q⇒P ¾=0.75 3/3= 1 (100%) ✔ P⇒S ¾=0.75 ¾= 0.75 (75%) X S⇒P ¾=0.75 3/3 =1 (75%) X Minimum confidence was 90%. So, rule Q⇒P was the final rule that was selected for the given support and confidence value. Similarly, the data taken from the survey were used to reduce the dimensions. There were 43 columns in the main dataset; these were optimized enough up to 23. The sample of 8 392 respondents was analyzed for association rule mining. The analysis is briefly described in the next section. ANALYSIS Association rule mining The prepared data were sent to the association rule miner tool, which is designed in C language. The updated and latest version 6.29 (2020.06.15) was used to analyze the data. The sample of the input table can be seen in table 6. The questions asked in the survey were transformed into itemsets (attribute, namely A1, A2, A3, A4 ... A23). Most of the questions were from a five point-based Likert scale. If the respondents were found positive, then the qualitative values were replaced with a “1”, and if the respondents’ response were negative qualitatively, it was replaced with a blank. All the 1’s in a column were replaced with the column’s name (attribute). The input table looked like table 6(b) which was transformed from table 6(a). Table 6: Transformation of input table 71 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 1 1 1 1 1 ….. 1 A1 A2 A3 A5 ….. A23 1 1 ….. 1 A1 A5 ….. A23 1 1 ….. 1 1 ….. 1 1 ….. 1 1 1 1 1 A3 A3 A4 A5 ….. A1 1 6(a) Table before transformation A4 A5 ….. A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 ….. A23 6(b) Transformed table The transformed table was named my_file and was converted into a CSV file that was fed into the Apriori tool. The syntax of the input file was as follows (figure 1): Figure 1. Syntax of Apriori tool execution in command prompt The standard syntax is: >apriori –tr –confidence -support name_of_intpufile.txt name_of_outfilename.txt For example, if we want to input the file for support value 95 and confidence value 90 for an output file “op.txt”, then the syntax would be: >apriori –tr –c90 –s95 my_file.txt op.txt After the execution of the tool, table 7 was prepared, and this led the discussion towards association rule decoding. The Apriori tool was executed in the given dataset, and the results were captured in several output text files containing the rules for different support and confidence values. Table 7 contains the number of association rules for several support and confidence values. S: Support; C: Confidence; N: Number of rules for corresponding “S” and “C” values. Table 4: Number of rules for different support and confidence values 72 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 S 80 80 80 80 85 85 85 85 C 85 90 95 100 85 90 95 100 85 90 95 100 85 90 95 100 85 90 95 N 143 48 20 0 2 None None 43 17 6 0 90 90 90 90 15 6 1 0 95 95 95 95 4 2 0 0 100 100 100 4 100 100 RESULT AND DISCUSSION There are many rules when the support value is lesser. This causes the association rule explosion. The value of support and confidence were kept higher when the significant rules were mined from all association rules. Associations between several attributes are presented in table 8. The rules having their support ≥ 85 qualified to be the part of this table. Table 5: Rules qualified the threshold support and confidence values Rules A20 ⇒ A8 A13 (85.2772, 90.1345) A20 ⇒ A8 A1 (86.6157, 90.287) A8 ⇒ A20 (88.1453, 91.1063) A20 ⇒ A13 A1 (88.9101, 90.3226) A13 ⇒ A20 (88.1453, 93.9262) A1 ⇒ A20 (88.1453, 96.0954) A1 ⇒ A8 A13 (85.2772, 97.0852) A13 ⇒ A8 A1 (86.6157, 95.585) A8 ⇒ A13 A1 (88.9101, 93.1183) A13 ⇒ A8 (89.4837, 95.2991) A8 ⇒ A13 (92.543, 92.1488) A1 ⇒ A8 (89.4837, 96.7949) A8 ⇒ A1 (94.8375, 91.3306) A1 ⇒ A13 (92.543, 96.0744) A13 ⇒ A1 (94.8375, 93.75) The threshold value for the rule picking was support=85 and confidence=85. The above-listed rules totaled less than 43, as some self-associations were eliminated. To derive the inference, the minimum support was kept 85 and minimum confidence 90. The next step was decoding the association rules. A20⇒A8 A13 (85.2772, 90.1345) – This rule shows that there was a considerable association between attributes {A20: The main hindrance of ICT-supported education is it needs internet connection all the time} and {A13: WhatsApp helped learners to share documents and resources, A8: ICT-supported education has changed the mean of communication as meeting and classes can be scheduled as per easiness}. Opinions about “WhatsApp helped learners to share documents” and “Resources and ICT integration in education is important” had the strongest associations, with 94.8375 support value and 93.75 confidence value (namely A13⇒A1). “ICT-supported education is important” and “ICT-supported 73 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 education has changed the way students interact with teachers” were tightly coupled – evidence is A1⇒A8 (89.4837, 96.7949) and A8⇒A1 (94.8375, 91.3306). A deeper insight into the rules shows that certain attributes appeared frequently in the association rules; A1, A8, A13, A20, A3 (ICT has enhanced communication among teachers and students) and A6 (Changes in communication behavior due to ICT using WhatsApp). These frequent itemsets were the main attributes that made a significant impact on learners’ opinion about ICT-supported education systems. The inferences derived from this section are summarized next. CONCLUSION COVID-19 has transformed the pattern of both teaching and learning. Policy-makers, educationists and academics are working continuously to improve the quality of ICT-supported education in favor of learners’ motivation (Dubey & Piroska, 2019). Learners and teachers’ feedback become very important to discover the scope of improvement. In this study, the opinions of learners who followed ICT-supported learning were analyzed. The findings add facts and quantitative association between several opinions (attributes). The impact Rule A20 ⇒ A8 A13 shows that learners spent time in ICTsupported learning, so they needed to share the documents and also get connected whenever a meeting was scheduled. They considered these two as positive aspects of ICT-supported learning. On the other hand, however, they complained that there was a need for the Internet all the time, which is a hindrance to ICT-supported education. This relation (A13⇒A1) concludes that learners felt comfortable in ICT-supported education, but they wanted further improvement in the quality and services of ICT-supported education. The discussion above indicates that learners followed the online mode of learning using WhatsApp. There were several issues while implementing it, but also some goods. The problem of consistent internet connection is the biggest challenge. Other than that, the difficulties in communication or reduced communications are big issues. Regarding content delivery and resources availability, the respondents favored that the sharing of content using WhatsApp brought easiness in their academics (Baishya & Maheshwari, 2020). The advantage of finding association between such factors is that the handling of the hitches in ICTsupported learning will become easier. The association shows that the attributes were tightly coupled, so solving one problem would definitely help indirectly solve the related attributes as well. This paper gives a future direction and guidance for upcoming research on analyzing learners’ feedback and opinions. Acknowledgements Authors would like to acknowledge and thank the University of Debrecen for the smooth conduct of research and analysis phase of this work. This study was supported by the Stipendium Hungaricum fund. REFERENCES Ali, W. (2020). Online and remote learning in higher education institutes: A necessity in light of COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education studies, 10(3), 16–25. Almaiah, M. 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In Proceedings of the seventh ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining (pp. 401–406). 76 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 REFLECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF A SELECTED REGION IN NAMIBIA Dr Simasiku Limbo Enock University of Namibia (lesimasiku@unam.na) Abstract This study was conducted in a selected region of Namibia. The purpose of study was to determine teachers’ understanding and application of reflective teaching and how it influenced learner performance in the national examinations. Reflective teaching is a treasured teaching approach in which teachers gather information about their own classes and pay close attention to their behaviour and teaching strategies. Hence, teachers can evaluate themselves to discover their strengths and weaknesses. Technology plays a critical role in teachers’ ability to gather data on self-reflective teaching. Lately, the positive effects of reflective teaching on its potential to improve learner performance are obvious to most teachers (Spalding, 2020). In this study, the possible application of reflective teaching in different aspects of teaching was investigated. A mixed-methods case study design was used in this study. The target population was the teachers in all senior secondary schools in a selected region (Namibia). A purposively selected sample of five senior secondary schools out of 10 was considered for this study. Stratified purposive sampling was applied in selecting 15 teachers to participate in this study. The school principals automatically constituted the sample of the study, which implied that the inclusive sample consisted of 20 participants (teachers and principals included). The following instruments were used to identify teachers’ reflective teaching skills: Reflective Teaching Closed- and Open-Ended Questionnaire; Reflective Teaching Lesson Observation Checklist; and the Reflective Teaching Interview Schedule for teachers and principals. In this study, common trends in the data were analysed by adapting the steps developed by Creswell and Clark (2018) for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that teachers were not wellequipped with skills and knowledge, and digital resources were necessary to effectively engage in reflective teaching. As argued by Ferwana (2006), a good reflective disposition of a teacher can improve learners’ performance. Keywords: reflective teaching, reflective practice, reflection in action, reflection-on-action, reflection-for-action, social constructivism, cognitive constructivism; metacognition. BACKGROUND In most Namibian schools, reflective teaching is left to the discretion of the teacher to decide whether to apply it. This is mainly because there seems to be no clear rule, policy, guidelines or education Act on the implementation of reflective teaching in schools. Reflective teaching is an important approach to teachers, since it helps them develop in many ways, like problem-solving and decision-making processes, and it fosters critical-thinking abilities. Reflective teaching is an innovative approach in teaching. It is a valuable approach in which teachers use their intuitions and experiences to observe their performance, evaluate themselves, criticise their practices, and accept other criticism openmindedly. It helps them to progress and develop their teaching performance. Therefore, reflective teaching is a useful process that leads to teachers’ professional growth. Moreover, the reflective approach to teaching involves changes in the way we usually perceive teaching and our role in the process of teaching. Teachers, who explore their own teaching through critical reflection, develop changes in attitudes and awareness that they believe can benefit their professional growth as teachers and improve the kind of support they provide to their students. 77 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 However, like other forms of self-inquiry, reflective teaching is not without its disadvantages, since journal writing, self-reporting, or making recordings of lessons are definitely time-consuming. Though there are other approaches that are known to influence the quality of teaching in the classroom, this study focused on teachers’ application of reflective teaching as an approach to enhance the quality of teaching. National and international literature suggests that the ability of teachers to efficiently apply reflective teaching is the mother of factors influencing the quality of teaching that happens in the classroom. Swarts (1998) suggests that without applying reflective teaching, teachers may not be able to identify certain areas of concern in the teaching profession. The data collected from the questionnaires, classroom observation, interviews and end-of-year results were used as a measure of teachers’ reflectivity. Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) argues that reflective teaching enables teachers to do introspection in teaching and ultimately affects improved academic performance of learners. It can therefore be suggested that a continuous decline or consistently poor academic performance of learners is an indicator of the absence or lack of teaching reflectivity in the classroom. PROBLEM STATEMENT Reflective teaching is known to improve the quality of teaching and learning that precede quality performance by learners in the national examinations (Ferdowsi & Afghari, 2015). In the region where this study was conducted, there seemed to be a consistent lower achievement of quality symbols by learners in the national examinations. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine how teachers engaged in reflective teaching and how their engagement influenced learners’ performance in the selected region. The objectives of the study were as follows: i. ii. iii. to elicit teachers’ responses on their understanding of reflective teaching in the selected region; to establish the value attached by teachers of applying reflective teaching in the selected region; to determine how principals assessed the application of reflective teaching and its influence on learners’ performance in the selected region. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The concept of reflective teaching stems from reflective practice – a concept that originated from the work of John Dewey (1859–1952), an American who took the notion of reflection from philosophy and introduced it to the fields of psychology and pedagogy. According to Zwozdiak-Myers (2009), Dewey’s ideas provided a basis for the concept of reflective practice which gained influence with the arrival of Schon’s idea in 1983. One of Schön’s (1983) most important and enduring contributions was to identify two types of reflection: reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action. In both types of reflection, professionals aim to connect with their feelings and attend to relevant theory. Reflective teaching means looking back at what you do in the classroom and giving it a meaning by attaching the why question to what you go through (Bailey, 2012; Loughran, 2006; Spalding, 2020). Bailey (2012) further asserts that in the classroom setting, reflective teaching would then mean gathering data on learning and teaching, organising, analysing and presenting the data, and making informed decisions that lead to better learning and teaching. They seek to build new understandings to shape their action in the unfolding situation. Reflective teaching is closely associated with three theories that rope the link between reflective teaching and learner performance: social constructivism, cognitive constructivism, and metacognitive theory. This study adopted metacognition as a theoretical framework. The theory of metacognition relates to the principles of reflective teaching in that it is cognition about cognition, thinking about thinking, knowing about knowing, becoming aware of awareness, and higher-order thinking (Philip & Dwayne, 2010). John Flavell originally coined the term metacognition in the late 1970s to mean 78 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 “cognition about cognitive phenomena”, or more simply “thinking about thinking” (Flavell, 1979, p. 906). Subsequent development and use of the term have remained relatively faithful to this original meaning. As Kuhn and Dean (2004) explain, metacognition is what enables a learner who has been taught a particular strategy in a particular problem context to retrieve and deploy that strategy in a similar but new context. In cognitive psychology, metacognition is often defined as a form of executive control involving monitoring and self-regulation – a point also echoed by other researchers (McLeod, 1997; Schneider & Lockl, 2002). In her research report on metacognition, Lai (2011) postulates that educational psychologists have long promoted the importance of metacognition for regulating and supporting learner learning. Lai (2011) states that the partnership for 21st-century skills has identified self-directed learning as one of the life and career skills necessary to prepare learners for post-secondary education and the workforce. However, educators may not be familiar with methods for teaching and assessing metacognition, particularly among elementary aged learners. Definition of reflective teaching Bolton (2010) states that reflective teaching is a process of learning and developing through examining one’s own practice and opening this to wider scrutiny by others and studying texts from other spheres. Bolton believes that knowledge is stored in stories and moments; in those fragments it can be retrieved from our memory, and by reviewing the fragments, elements that were not seen in the course of the action can be discovered. Reflection-in-action is a cognitive habit of observing how we think in the process of the action and adapting our thoughts to the requirements of the change we are trying to achieve (Schön, 1983). It is the management at real time of the approach we are using for analysing the situation, the assumptions we are taking for granted, the main characteristics of our mental model in respect of the problem we are addressing. Donald Schön referred to reflective teachers as professionals who have developed their capacity for reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action, for being aware of the conversation they are having with the situations when they are trying to make a change, the capacity of seeing the external (physical and social) reality, and their internal cognitive reality. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflective teaching needed to embrace technology as an enabler for teachers to gather data on their application of reflective teaching. Moreover, multimodal avenues for sourcing data on reflective teaching had become a necessity as schools became more characterised by random closures on the basis of the recorded cases of the global pandemic (COVID19). Methods of reflective teaching The rationale for including the methods of reflective teaching in this study was primarily to compare the methods of reflective teaching that are applied in the Zambezi Region compared to the internationally renowned methods of reflective teaching. These methods further informed some questions included in the data collection tools used in this study. Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) recommended the following as methods of engaging in reflective teaching: reflective journaling; peer mentoring; video/audio recording of lessons; teacher’s portfolio. Additionally, action research and reflective supervision are central methods of reflective teaching, as suggested by Coghlan (2015) and Parlakian (2001), respectively. It is important to note that most of these methods can still be used in the remote teaching situation that the COVID-19 pandemic imposed upon the world. Models of reflective teaching A model is something used as an example to follow or imitate (Henderson, 2001). Reflective teaching is an inquiry approach that emphasises an ethic of care, a constructivist approach to teaching, and creative problem-solving (Henderson, 2001). A reflective teaching model can, therefore, be defined 79 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 as an example of an inquiry approach that emphasises ethics of care, constructivist teaching and creative problem-solving that teachers may follow or imitate in teaching. In this study, the following models of reflective teaching were expounded: Lawrence Stenhouse’s (1975) model of reflective practice, Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle model, Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle model, Syrjala’s (1996) collaborative model of reflective practice, and Mathos et al.’s (2010) model of reflective teaching. These models were relevant to this study because they informed the questions included in the data collection tools. Levels of reflective teaching Once teachers have chosen a particular model of reflection, the next step or question to ask is: To what extent do or should I reflect? Farrell (2016) asserts that educators split reflective practice into three hierarchical levels as follows: • • • Level 1: Action in the classroom. When teachers plan at this level, they are concerned only with what they do in their classrooms. Level 2: Involves analysing the reasons for the actions taken. It is also called reflection at contextual level; what teachers focus on the theory behind their classroom practices. They can then look into alternative practices they might prefer to use, depending on their learners’ needs. Level 3: Encourages teachers to justify the work they do and reflect within the broader context of society. Theoretical framework This study was primarily grounded in three theories that rope the link between reflective teaching and learner performance: social constructivism, cognitive constructivism, and metacognitive theory. These theories view learning and teaching as a constructed phenomena (Akdeniz et al., 2016). These theories share focus in viewing teaching as a process of facilitating learning (Akdeniz et al., 2016). By combining elements of the three theories, this study aimed to provide a holistic and transparent description of dynamics in the classroom. METHODOLOGY This study followed a mixed-methods case study design. Such a study design involves qualitative and quantitative data collection, results and interpretations to provide in-depth evidence for a case(s) or to develop cases for comparative analysis (Creswell & Clark, 2017). Creswell and Clark (2017) further state that a mixed-methods case study is especially suited for learning more about a littleknown or poorly understood situation. This design was most suited to this study, as little was known about the Grade 12 teacher’s understanding of reflective teaching and learners’ performance in the selected region. The study population consisted of 10 senior secondary schools from the selected region. A sample of five schools was purposely selected for this study. Three research instruments were used to gather findings. Data-generation procedures included handing out the RTCOEQ to teachers two days in advance; thereafter, the completed RTCOEQ were collected. At the time of collecting the RTCOEQ, an agreement with the participating teachers on the time for the lesson observation was reached. Data were presented by means of verbatim responses, tables, charts and graphs. The collected data were predominantly qualitative, with fewer cases of quantitative data collected to support the qualitative data. Common trends in the data were analysed by adapting the steps developed by Creswell and Clark (2018) for mixed-methods designs. FINDINGS The data led to the conclusion that teachers in the selected region had a high regard for reflective teaching as a means to improve teacher and learner performance. However, it is important to note that data from the three tools equally revealed that teachers were not well-equipped with skills, knowledge 80 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 and digital resources necessary to effectively engage in reflective teaching, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. As argued earlier by Ferwana (2006), a good reflective disposition of a teacher can improve learner performance. It can therefore be taken to inversely imply that teachers’ lack of understanding in reflective teaching may be a contributing factor to the persistent lower achievement of quality symbols in the selected region – a situation that resembles the observed situation of learners’ performance in the national examinations in the selected region. Below are the selected verbatim responses of teachers on how they understood reflective teaching: Teacher 1: A systematic approach in teaching where a practitioner (teacher) looks back at his work or practice with the aim of improving his/her own practice. Teacher 2: Reflective teaching refers to a review which is carried out after presenting a lesson to evaluate or identify the weakness and strength of a lesson. Teacher 6: To check back on how well teaching went on. Did learners understand or not. Teacher 7: Visualising your ended lesson to establish the strength and weakness of the lesson taught. Further, Teacher 9, 12, 13, & 15 indicated that they were not familiar with reflective teaching, while teacher 14, omitted the question. In summary, 67% of the teachers claimed to know the meaning of reflective teaching. However, when these teachers were asked to further explain the application of reflective teaching, it emerged that they lacked understanding and application of reflective practice. Taking it from the perspective that reflective teaching is a teacher’s assessment tool for shaping effective teaching and the learning environment, it can be concluded that teachers from the selected region who participated in this study lacked training on reflective teaching. Teaching that lacks reflection is tantamount to poor learner performance on tasks taught. As Ferwana (2006) points out, learners who attend classes where teachers engage in structured reflection on learning and teaching are more likely to achieve a high understanding of the content taught than those who are taught in a class where no or less structured reflections take place. The study revealed that teachers lacked skills and knowledge required to successfully execute reflective teaching. Teachers also highlighted lack of equipment and stringent schedules as some of the reasons why they did not really engage in reflective teaching. Failure to engage in effective reflections further imply stagnation in professional growth and development. Lack of professional growth and development are the detrimental ingredients of constant poor performance in the workplace (including the classroom where learning and teaching ought to take place). During lesson observations by using the RTLOC, it was found that teachers were not so familiar with the application of reflective teaching, though they claimed to be familiar with reflective teaching. This may explain the observed stagnation of the selected region in the national regional rankings of the national examinations. This is in line with Fullan (1991), who holds the view that educational change depends on what teachers do and think. Clift et al. (1990) and Evans (2002) further state that self-reflection on teaching is one of the best ways in which teachers can consistently monitor and improve their ability to teach effectively. It can be concluded that the poor performance of learners in the national examination that was observed in the selected region was greatly influenced by teachers’ lack of understanding and application of reflective teaching. This is in line with literature by Bolton (2010), Bababei and Abednia (2016), Fatemipour (2012), Lai (2011), Spalding (2020), Swarts (1998) and ZwozdiakMyers (2009), who collectively argue that reflective teaching is a professional tool for teachers to improve the teaching–learning environment. 81 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study revealed information about the state of reflective teaching in the selected region, its characteristics and impact. It was concluded from the findings that teachers’ lack of reflective attributes impacted learner performance in the national examinations. The findings further revealed that teachers in the selected region valued reflective teaching as tool to improve teaching and learning. All teachers are expected to engage in reflective teaching. Engaging in reflective teaching takes time and effort, but the rewards can be great (Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Reflective teaching should be inseparable from teaching at all levels in the selected region and Namibia at large to foster better performance of teachers and learners. In line with the global endeavour to assimilate industrial revolution, the integration of digital media in the process of reflective teaching is recommended. Thus, teachers are advised to embrace the multimodal approach in the implementation of reflective teaching. Recommendations for improving teaching and learning through reflective teaching in the selected region were categorised as follows: Recommendations for teachers; Recommendations for school principals; Recommendations for the Directorate of Education in that region; and Recommendations for teacher training institutions. It was recommended that teachers and school principals take deliberate steps in seeking opportunities to better their understanding and application of reflective teaching. 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An analysis of the concept reflective practice and an investigation into the development of learner teachers’ reflective practice within the context of action research (Doctoral dissertation). http://vscheiner.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/4316/1/FulltextThesis.pdf. 83 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 CURBING EXCLUSION: THE EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS AND THEIR LECTURERS ON DISTANCE AND ONLINE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN NAMIBIA Mirjam Sheyapo University of Namibia (msheyapo@unam.na) Isobel Green Namibia University of Science and Technology (igreen@unam.na) Abstract Owing to the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) towards the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China, higher education institutions (HEIs) had to shift from traditional teaching to remote teaching and learning. This shift affected lecturers and tested the readiness of open and distance learning (ODL) centres of various HEIs, particularly for students with visual impairments (SVI) who mainly depend on face-toface lectures. Students had to source technological devices, acquaint themselves with e-learning applications, relocate to gain access to the Internet, and adapt to the new learning modes. The abrupt transition from the traditional face-to-face teaching method to online had several shortcomings despite many success stories. Noting an increase in access to higher education, particularly to SVI, it is also sad to note that this group of students remains excluded and thus less visible in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programme. A phenomenological design was used in this study. Six (6) lecturers who included SVI during distance learning participated in a focus group discussion. In addition, two SVI narrated their accounts in semi-structured interviews. The participants revealed various challenges and opportunities. Among others, the students and lecturers pointed out that lack of technological devices, instructional materials, preparedness, knowledge and skills were barriers to inclusion. The paper concludes that most institutions remain reluctant to prepare for and be proactive in including SVI in ODL programmes. Consequently, this results in the exclusion of SVI during unforeseen situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper calls for policy transformation at the national, ministerial and institutional level to facilitate the move towards inclusive education through all learning modes, including the ODL programme. Keywords: visual impairments; open and distance learning; exclusion; inclusion; inclusive education INTRODUCTION Access to higher education maximises employment opportunities for individuals with or without disabilities (Reed & Curtis, 2012). According to the National Development Plan (NDP 5), access to higher education is a crucial enabler of economic freedom in Namibia. It also plays a vital role in poverty eradication, improving quality of life, and strengthening economic situations for the country, families and individuals (Government of the Republic of Namibia, 2017/2018 to 2021/2022). Responding to the call for Education for All (EFA), higher education institutions (HEIs) in Namibia have maximised access to higher education. Students with different disabilities are in various programmes offered by different universities in the country. Some students with disabilities have obtained qualifications in various fields and compete in the job market. Namibia and the world have guiding policies that compel academic institutions to provide education for all (Mole, 2012). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 assured the rights 84 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 to education, and it asserts “higher education shall be equally accessible to all based on merit” (Article 26, section (a)). In addition, the Salamanca Declaration of 1994 supports the inclusion of students with special needs in regular schools. The declaration urges educational systems to implement programmes that consider individual unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO], 1994). It further alludes that inclusive education is imperative to combating discriminatory attitudes and creating welcoming communities. The Salamanca Declaration recommends sound student-centred pedagogy with extensive support from which all students can benefit (UNESCO, 1994). Furthermore, the World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century: Vision and Action of 1998 affirms the rights to education and access to higher education. It calls for unique materials and educational solutions that can reduce the barriers faced by students with disabilities to accessing and continuing higher education (UNESCO, 1998). An increase in the diversity of students entering HEIs has prompted student support services to ensure inclusion and equitable quality education (Dhillon, McGowan, & Wang, 2008). In addition, Namibia remains committed to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals stipulated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Goal 4 calls for inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of education and promotes lifelong opportunities for all. Education is a constitutional right of all citizens and enables poverty eradication (Government of the Republic of Namibia, 2017/2018 to 2021/2022). In 2013, Namibia developed a National Sector Policy on Inclusive Education to facilitate inclusive education at all levels in all education sectors (Ministry of Education, 2013). The roles of university education are to facilitate skills development and increase long-term economic growth (Conlon, 2014). In 2018, about 59 208 students were registered at different HEIs in Namibia, studying through various modes, of which 32.5% were through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) modes (National Council of Higher Education, 2018, p. 6). A total of 98 413 (4.7%) of the Namibian population are people living with visual impairments (NSA, Government of the Republic of Namibia, 2012). In this study, students with visual impairments (SVI) refer to any student who may need additional support due to limited vision. However, this is not limited to blind and partially sighted students in HEIs. Although the prevalence of SVI in higher education in Namibia is not consistent, there are limited reports on statistics on the enrolment of students with disabilities in higher education in Namibia, particularly in ODL modes. Some years, more SVI enrol, while very few students enrol in other years. The outbreak of COVID-19 in Namibia brought about disruption to all levels of education. In March 2020, all educational institutions were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The situation did not allow lecturers and students to plan but shifted to online and distance learning. Unfortunately, when we turned to online and distance learning due to COVID-19, most staff had to work from home, and most of the facilities, for example, technological devices, were in offices. Students living in hostels had to relocate back home, and most students lived in rural areas. Students and lecturers had to rely on technology to ensure that the semester continued uninterrupted (UNESCO, 2020). Most students and lecturers were used to the face-to-face mode, and the practice of using technology in learning was new to most. They had no choice but to acquaint themselves with the new norm of e-learning platforms. During the online and distance learning due to COVID-19, most HEIs depended on the existing facilities and learning materials used by ODL centres. The regional centres had to step in to facilitate the unplanned online and distance learning for all students during the pandemic. They had to ensure the support of students and lecturers for effective teaching and learning. There is limited SVI in ODL programmes, making most centres more reactive and not proactively prepared for all students. In some courses, there were various SVI who mainly depended on the faceto-face mode. Many researchers reveal challenges SVI face in HEIs while in face-to-face mode 85 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 (Haihambo, 2010; Josua, 2013; Sheyapo, 2017). Given the abrupt shift to online and distance mode, this paper sought to answer the following questions: What were the challenges and opportunities for SVI? How did SVI access the instructional materials? How did lecturers ensure the inclusion of SVI during online and distance learning (support to meet individual needs)? Therefore, this paper presents the experiences of students and lecturers regarding online and distance teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It narrates their challenges, opportunities and coping mechanisms. LITERATURE REVIEW Hewett et al. (2017) underscore that moving towards inclusive education requires institutions to invest more in resources that ensure equal opportunities and equity for all levels and modes of learning. They state that HEIs should strengthen their support services to meet the unique needs of students through the various available modes of learning. Ciobanu (2013) investigated the roles of student services in improving students’ experience in higher education and found that students who lack academic, emotional and social connection with the institution are at risk of giving up their studies if adequate support is not provided. Reed and Curtis’ (2012) findings show that some students shy away from seeking admission to institutions and hold a perception that there are less academic and social support. To ensure the inclusion of all students, Liakou and Manousou (2015) conclude that HEIs must provide training to educators as to how to support students during teaching and learning to provide equal education opportunities to all students, particularly SVI. They further advise that HEIs must capitalise on the options to record class materials, supportive equipment and assistive technology such as visual and tactile aids (Liakou & Manousou, 2015). Ciobanu (2013) acknowledges that student support services contribute to the quality of learning experience among students and their academic success and decrease the university dropout rate. Reed and Curtis (2012) assert that understanding the unique needs of SVI could lead to more success in various study programmes for these students. Moreover, Butler et al. (2017) emphasise that while students should be allowed to learn independently, it still is the responsibility of universities to ensure equitable access to the learning materials for all students. Liakou and Manousou (2015) and Tichauya et al. (2014) mention various challenges to providing distance learning for visually impaired students. Such challenges include lack of graphic learning materials, unreliable supportive equipment, lack of academic experts to support SVI, lack of intermediary staff to facilitate the studies of SVI, and limitations on library services to cater for the needs of SVI. These challenges are common in most HEIs. Reed and Curtis (2012) highlight some barriers that impede the successful completion of university programmes by SVI. They point out the poor quality and timeliness of alternate print formats and poor access to computer-based materials. Similarly, a different study (Luque, 2018) was conducted to identify the practices and perceptions of educators and visually impaired learners regarding their inclusion in computing education programmes. The study reported that graphical information was one of the challenges SVI faced. Luque (2018) concluded that the inclusion of SVI depends on educators’ creativity to find approaches and methods that can meet the needs of SVI. Moreover, Luque (2018) stated that most educators do not change their lecturing methods, thus making SVI depend on volunteer sighted learners for support. Ciobanu (2013) highlights that the beliefs and values of staff, institutional policies, curriculum, services and the learning environment influence the help availed to students with disabilities, particularly SVI. Mahyoob (2020) highlighted some of the technical issues students had during e-learning during COVID-19 remote learning. Amongst others, he indicated that internet connectivity posed challenges to accessing classes for most students and downloading course materials. Barrot et al. (2021) echoed 86 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 similar sentiments, namely that online and distance learning affected the quality of the learning experience. However, they acknowledged that students employed resource management and utilisation strategies, help-seeking, technical aptitude enhancement, time management, and learning environment control. The study drew on the social model of disabilities that emerged between 1960 and 1970 as individuals with disabilities started to radically question the institutionalisation and segregation of people with disabilities (Levitt, 2017). They criticised and interrogated the medical model that supported segregation and institutionalisation of people with disabilities. The social model interrogates the roles of institutions in addressing organisational, pedagogical and attitudinal barriers (Bishop & Rhind, 2011). It advocates for equitable access to quality education for all through curriculum and policy transformation – an approach that should also reach ODL centres to anticipate the needs of students with disabilities, particularly SVI. Furthermore, the social model believes that society imposes these barriers. Subsequently, a lack of inclusive learning management systems (LMS) and inclusive instructional materials and methods are some forms of exclusion for SVI in higher education (Inclusion London, 2015). McKenzie and Dalton (2020) highlight the need to incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into policy, research and teaching practice, because it is a concept that can enhance inclusive education. To date, most students with disabilities face different forms of exclusion due to various barriers created by the existing education systems. As a result, SVI turn to self-advocacy to ensure success in their academic endeavours (Bishop & Rhind, 2011). Consequently, in the context of this paper, the social model of disabilities encourages institutional preparedness for all students. It also advocates for proactiveness to anticipate the needs of all students in all modes of learning. Finally, it calls for an adjustment to the virtual and distance learning environment that includes improved online instructional materials and assessment methods and support staff with the necessary training and attitudinal change (Williams et al., 2017). RESEARCH METHODS The researchers used the qualitative phenomenological research design to gather data through virtual semi-structured interviews with two SVI. The latter were in their final year in different programmes at the selected HEI. Furthermore, six lecturers who included SVI in their courses during online and distance learning participated in a virtual focus group discussion. Students and lecturers were purposefully selected to narrate their experiences of inclusion in online and distance learning that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data. The researcher first read and re-read the narratives to generate themes. The researcher also looked for connections and patterns from the narratives and finally made interpretations to deduce meanings from the data. Moreover, the discussion of findings in this paper considers the three key features of IPA: firstly, the experience of SVI of the shift to online and distance learning during the initial lockdown due to COVID-19; secondly, ideography takes into account the participants’ uniqueness and perspectives while inferring meanings and understanding with due respect to individual integrity; and finally, the researcher interpreted the narratives without interfering with the participants’ contexts. The original accounts of participants are used to present their voices. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Four main themes emerged from the structured interviews and focus group discussion. This section presents the original narratives as echoed by the participants, followed by a discussion of the findings in relation to the reviewed literature. 87 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 SVI and lecturers’ readiness to shift to online and distance mode SVI preparedness On the questions regarding students’ encounters with online and distance teaching and learning, the interviews exposed issues of unpreparedness and SVI anticipated exclusion even before the commencement of the online and distance mode. This is what one SVI had to say: The day the university announced that we had to shift to online and distance learning due to COVID-19, I was very angry with the university management, thinking they decided to introduce online learning without considering the students with special needs. I was angry and depressed, feeling that I would be left out. (SVI Participant 1) In his narrative, the participant anticipated exclusion soon after receiving the news about shifting to online and distance learning due to COVID-19. The participant doubted and was worried about support. Likewise, Reed and Curtis (2012) indicated that students anticipate a lack of support and thus shy away from seeking admission to institutions. Student support is an assurance and, as alluded to by Ciobanu (2013), it is crucial that it contributes to the quality of learning experience and academic success. The other participant had this to say: I was in the North as it was an institutional break, and my laptop was in Windhoek. (SVI Participant 2) The participant narrated that he was not ready to shift to the online and distance mode. He recounted that he was not prepared for the new learning mode and that he was caught off guard because the announcement came during a semester break when most students travelled home for the holiday. The participant expressed worry and panic and felt that he was not in his usual learning setting and separated from his learning enabler (his laptop). Since there was pressure on both the student and the lecturers, students anticipated little support from their lecturers and peers. I gave up and submitted to spend one more year at the university because I thought I would not manage. (SVI Participant 1) In the beginning, I felt like I was excluded. Most lecturers were trying to speed up to cover the contents. Everyone was confused and panicking. (SVI Participant 2) These utterances depict the pressure and loss of hope the students sensed. According to Luque (2018), most educators do not change their lecturing methods, which could cause doubt among SVI. Similarly, Ciobanu (2013) highlights that the beliefs and values of staff, institutional policies, curriculum, services and the learning environment influence the support availed to students with disabilities, particularly SVI. Lecturers’ preparedness Inclusion relied on the preparedness of lecturers and the institution. Impressively, one participant indicated readiness to include all students. She narrated that she was aware of the SVI prevalence in her class and was thus ready. Lecturers who had encountered SVI before were very positive and prepared to have them: I was ready because I was aware that I have an SVI in my class. It was not my first time to include an SVI. (Lec Participant 1) Furthermore, the participants echoed insufficient readily available instructional materials for SVI; consequently, they had to use what was available. This is what they had to say: [S]ince there were no materials ready for SVI, we had to fit them in with what we had. (Lec Participant 2) It came as a surprise, and we were unprepared for the distance mode. Some of us were not even conversant with technology. It was a struggle. When I started, I did not even think of how to 88 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 cater for SVI. (Lec Participant 4) On the other hand, other participants indicated that they were not ready to meet the needs of SVI. They alluded to limited ability to use technology. Ironically, this implies that it was a struggle to use technology and that they had not even thought of SVI. The findings support those of Butler et al. (2017) and Hewett et al. (2017), who emphasised that inclusive education requires institutions to invest more in resources that ensure equal opportunities. Challenges experienced by SVI during online and distance learning The study explored the experiences of SVI and their lecturers during online and distance learning in HEI in Namibia. Various challenges were identified that impacted on the inclusion of SVI during online and distance learning. Most challenges emanated from societal/social barriers in and outside the university. Similar barriers that impede inclusion were also echoed by Mahyoob (2020) – for example, that there were many technical issues students had to deal with during online and distance learning that included internet connectivity. Similarly, Bishop and Rhind (2011) stated that SVI face attitudinal, institutional, environmental and physical barriers while in HEIs. Online and distance education due to COVID-19 introduced many challenges. The participants in this study revealed technological and infrastructural and environmental challenges. These challenges are discussed below. Technological and infrastructural challenges One participant narrated the dilemma of shifting from face-to-face to online and distance learning. This response revealed infrastructural limitations and challenges to using technology for learning in a rural setting. Limited access to electricity was worsened by the lockdowns of all shebeens and village cuca shops that were the means and points of accessing electricity to charge their devices. As his voice trembled, he recounted the severity of the situation while showing the urge and desire to continue with his academic work. This is what one participant had to say: I had no choice but to use my phone for all school activities. We had difficulties accessing electricity to charge our phones. We depended on the shebeens and nearby shops, which were also closed because of the regulations. It was a challenge, and we used the Chinese small solar panels to charge, which caused damage to the phone batteries. (SVI Participant 1) Findings showed that online learning revolved around technological interdependency. Participants underscored limited access to technical services, such as stable networks and internet connectivity, in different environments where they lived. Some participants who had smartphones and laptops needed power to charge the devices, better internet connectivity (data) and a stable network. Finally, students mentioned challenges with the LMS (Moodle platform) used for online learning. The participants expressed limitations to and disappointment in using the LMS (Moodle) during online learning: Moodle platform was congested; everyone was using the internet, and it was overloaded. The live classrooms were impossible; mainly, I depended on friends to read for me on the platform; without my laptop, where I have a reliable screen reader, it was a struggle, and the network was very slow. I could not attend the virtual class. (SVI Participant 1) I only used the platform to submit assignments and not have lessons on the platform before the pandemic. It was a challenge because I was not introduced to the system. (SVI Participant 2) With frustration, the participants described the shortfalls and cumbersomeness of using the e-learning platform due to limited internet and network connections and system overload, which made it difficult to attend virtual live class sessions. In addition, the participants revealed challenges of using their phone, instead of their laptop, which was compatible with the screen reader software. Findings revealed technological barriers resulting from technology malfunctioning, lack of skills and system overload. Similarly, Mahyoob (2020) indicated that internet connectivity challenges accessing 89 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 classes and downloading course materials online and distance learning. Findings revealed that online and distance learning was costly. Students needed devices, the skills to use them, internet and network connectivity, power to charge the devices, and essential applications and software, such as screen readers. Although participants acknowledged efforts and support from the university, these were not sufficient to sustain continuous learning. Home environment challenges Other challenges revealed by the participants during online and distance learning were the remoteness of their home environments, household chores, inconsideration of parents, and timetabling. Consequently, students had to balance household chores and academic demands. One participant had this to say: Another thing was the timing of the classrooms (timetable). We had to partake in the household chores. In the afternoon, we were exhausted. It was also the time we searched for power to charge our devices. The time was challenging with school and household chores. (SVI Participant 2) The participant narrated a story of a typical life in a village household. With pressure, he felt caught between academic work and household chores. Worth noting from the participant’s utterance were timetabling challenges. The university adopted the usual face-to-face timetables, and it was nearly impossible for SVI to attend the virtual sessions during the day due to household chores. Findings concur with Barrot et al. (2021), who state that the home environment was a barrier to learning during the COVID-pandemic. When I returned to Windhoek, I received support, and things were much better. I used the phone and laptop to follow the lessons; I joined WhatsApp groups; and I had access to power and a better internet connection in the hostel. (SVI Participant 2) The participant expressed relief upon returning to the city. The findings revealed that online and distance learning was more favourable in urban than in rural settings. The participant affirmed that learning improved when he gained access to his laptop. Thus, it was clear that the significant enablers of online and distance learning were a computer/laptop instead of a mobile phone, access to power/electricity, better and accessible internet connections, and multiple platforms, including WhatsApp. Regarding home environment challenges, most students lived in rural areas where modern infrastructure remain inaccessible to most families. Moreover, most village households had no electricity to charge their devices; thus, synchronous (live virtual sessions) was unsustainable. Students also had to balance household chores and academic workloads. Pedagogical challenges Participants highlighted delayed access to notes, visual information (graphics) without interpretation, lack of lecturer and student interaction, and difficulties downloading the recorded audios. The participants had this to say: I concentrated more when we interacted, debated or discussed. We had no group discussion, which generally helps me understand the content. One lecturer told me that I should take notes during the virtual lessons. You know, lecturers do not know us and our conditions. They treat us the same. Also, at the beginning of online learning, some lecturers were using pictures and diagrams. I had no one to explain or interpret the charts to understand. (SVI Participant 1) Lecturers took time to upload the notes, and we needed to read the notes before the assessments. It was also challenging to download the Panopto recordings. When I wrote the tests, it was challenging to achieve the planned target for the year because I did not have notes. (SVI Participant 2) 90 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Butler et al. (2017) advised that universities should ensure access to instructional materials for all students in fair and equitable access while enabling students to learn independently in their comfort spaces. Though lecturers tried to promote independence, they neglected the unique needs of individual students, particularly SVI. The participants felt that some lecturers unintentionally excluded them, while some were intentional in this regard. As Firat (2021) echoed, SVI face many barriers to learning, such as a lack of learning materials, accessing lecture notes and poor academic support. They also highlighted other forms of pedagogical exclusion – such as lack of interpretation of diagrams, charts and maps, contents in preferred formats, and limited interaction – that affect the academic performance of SVI. This not only impact on content comprehension; it also affects academic achievement. Coping strategies during online and distance learning Coping strategies of SVI Despite the challenges, the participants showed commitment, willingness and effort. They explained various coping strategies they used to ensure they were part of the teaching and learning process. Lesson recording was the primary method used that made learning possible. One participant had this to say: I asked lecturers to record the lessons and listen to them late in the evening. I also researched how the platform operates. During the day, we took the phones for charging most of the time. During the evenings, the network was better, and one could download or play the audios better. (SVI Participant 2) Bravely, the participant expressed satisfaction and pride in his success. Moreover, self-directed learning, self-empowerment and self-advocacy played significant roles. The students sought support, directed their learning and discovered suitable times to use the Internet. The efforts invested show a will to learn, self-reliance and autonomy despite the challenges. Although there were efforts of the virtual live sessions, online became asynchronous because of the technological challenges, and SVI took charge of their learning. Lecturers coping strategies Lecturers revealed lesson recording and live virtual class sessions as the strategies they used to ensure effective online and distance teaching and learning. They also recognised efforts of the university, such as training on online facilitation, and recording of sessions via various platforms, such as BigBlueButton, MS Teams, Panopto, PowerPoints with audio, and Zoom. However, the participants acknowledged that there were no considerations on including SVI. One participant said: The university gave us several pieces of training on how to use Moodle and Panopto, MS teams, PowerPoint with audios and BigBlueButton to avail the contents to the students, but nothing much about SVI. (Lec Participant 2) The university exposed us sufficiently to various methods, but SVI preferred recorded audio. I mainly recorded the sessions and virtual classes, and I had to keep track of my student to ensure that he received the contents on time. (Lec Participants 4) The above participant confidently and positively stated how she kept track of her SVI. Her statement suggests that SVI were included, depending on lecturers’ knowledge, efforts, attitude and willingness. Although the university tried its best to empower lecturers with regard to technology for teaching, there was little consideration of SVI. Opportunities Opportunities for SVI Speaking with a smile, the participants felt successful in overcoming the challenges. They related that challenges became steppingstones. It was impressive that the participants did not feel lonely in their 91 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 predicaments; they kept referring to “we”, showing a sense of unity. They highlighted an improvement in typing skills, advanced technological expertise, time and resource management, and organising and research skills. This is what one participant had to say: We improved on typing, advanced our technological expertise, time and resource management and, organising ourselves and learnt a lot about research. We had to find the articles online to complete our projects. It was great exposure, and I learned to save my little. (SVI Participant 2) One participant recounted: …the pandemic has taught us that life cannot be the same. (SVI Participant 1) Although the participants reported many challenges during online and distance learning due to COVID-19, they underscored various opportunities. Opportunities for lecturers The online and distance learning opportunities highlighted by lecturers included creativity, technological advancement, and collegial and institutional support. Participants shared their experiences and demonstrated excitement: It was challenging yet a great opportunity to some of us especially, using technology for teaching. (Lec Participant 2) I became more creative; you cannot imagine the type of activities, assessments and the many methods I was exposed to during the remote teaching. (Lec Participant 4) Further, they recounted that they had significant exposure to multiple teaching and assessment methods. However, they did not indicate the inclusive practices they used. One participant (Lec Participant 6) relayed that collegial support and training offered helped her cope with the online teaching and learning platforms: [W]e used colleagues to assist with the use of Moodle platforms, and more training helped us cope. Thus, the participants expressed satisfaction with the support and the new knowledge and skills gained during online and distance learning. These narratives support the findings of Luque (2018) that the inclusion of SVI depends on educators’ creativity to find approaches and methods that can meet the needs of SVI. CONCLUSION The findings showed that SVI anticipated exclusion due to a lack of institutional preparedness during online and distance learning. Despite the prevalence of ODL units and their immense advancement in new teaching and learning technology, most of the technology had limits on addressing the needs of SVI. Subsequently, most HEIs did not anticipate the needs of students with special needs, particularly SVI, but instead, reacted to their needs. There is still a reluctance to proactively prepare for all students. The extent to which SVI were included depended on the lecturers’ willingness, knowledge and exposure. Furthermore, it was concluded that online and distance learning depends on the interdependency of technology; those who had smartphones and laptops needed power to charge their devices, a stable network, internet connectivity, and knowledge and skills to use online learning platforms. However, lack of access to such technologies was the main barrier to learning. Notwithstanding a lack of appropriate instructional materials and teaching methods as barriers to learning, the study further concludes that pedagogical exclusion of SVI was worsened by these students’ home environment, ranging from remoteness and timing to balancing household chores with the timetable. 92 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 In addition, although learning was asynchronous, the lack of student–lecturer and student–student interaction, a lack of text and audio readers, and inappropriate font sizes affected the academic performance of SVI who depended on fellow students for further explanations of contents. Despite the many challenges, SVI and lecturers demonstrated perseverance, positive attitudes and willingness to learn. Moreover, SVI discovered strategies to control and manage their learning; they reverted to self-directed learning, self-empowerment and self-advocacy, finding a suitable time to use the Internet and managing their home environment. Also, participants developed self-reliance, autonomy and independence, technological advancement, creativity, research skills, good communication and a relationship with colleagues. These were benefits of online and distance learning. Finally, it is worth noting that SVI were more instrumental to their academic success during online and distance learning due to COVID-19. RECOMMENDATIONS Firstly, institutional policy transformation is recommended to facilitate the move towards inclusive education in all learning modes, including the ODL programme. Secondly, it is recommended that HEIs adopt the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and differentiated instructional strategies (DIS) to curb pedagogical exclusion by proactively planning for all students. Also, institutions should empower lecturers with essential inclusive pedagogies. Thirdly, HEIs should be mindful of the needs of SVI when investing in teaching and learning technologies. Moreover, ODL units should design inclusive online instructional materials, for example, online learning platforms, to be accessible and compatible with SVI devices. There is also a need to consider adjustable font size on quizzes for partially sighted assistive technology devices such as screen readers and to develop varied materials aligned with the diverse needs of students. In addition, HEIs should consider diverse students’ home environment when preparing ODL instructional materials, timetables and assignment due dates – for example, remoteness, lack of infrastructure, household chores, et cetera. Lastly, the researchers took cognisance of the study’s limitations. First, the researchers are emerging and novice scholars with limited expertise on IPA. Furthermore, the sample size was limited to the number of SVI registered during the time of data collection. Thus, it is recommended that further research be conducted on a similar phenomenon with a larger sample and includes the perspectives of student support officers in different ODL centres at HEIs. REFERENCES Barrot, J. S., Llenares, I. I., & del Rosario, L. S. (2021). Students’ online learning challenges during the pandemic and how they cope with them: The case of the Philippines. Education and Information Technologies, 26(6), 7321–7338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10589-x Bishop, D., & Rhind, D. J. A. (2011). Barriers and enablers for visually impaired students at a UK Higher Education Institution. The British Journal of Visual Impairment, 29(3), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264619611415329 Butler, M., Holloway, L., Marriott, K., & Goncu, C. (2017). Understanding the graphical challenges faced by vision-impaired students in Australian universities. Higher Education Research and Development, 36(1), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1177001 Ciobanu, A. (2013). The Role of Student Services in the Improving of Student Experience in Higher Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 92(Lumen), 169–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.654 Conlon, J. (2014). Developing the Role of Universities in Contributing to Poverty Reduction. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264046374 Dhillon, J. K., McGowan, M., & Wang, H. (2008). How effective are institutional and departmental 93 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 systems of student support? Insights from an investigation into the support available to students at one English university. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 13(3), 281–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596740802346472 Government of the Republic of Namibia, N. P. commission. (n.d.). NDP 5. Government of the Republic of Namibia, N. S. A. (2012). Namibia - Namibia Population and Housing Census 2011. July 2012. http://www.nsa.org.na/microdata1/index.php Haihambo, C. K. (2010). Inclusive Education: Challenges of students with disabilities in institutions of higher education in Namibia. [Doctoral Dissertation, University of South Africa] Saarbrucken. Lambert Academic Publishing Hewett, R., Douglas, G., McLinden, M., & Keil, S. (2017). Developing an inclusive learning environment for students with visual impairment in higher education: progressive mutual accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32(1), 89–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2016.1254971 Inclusion London. (2015). Factsheet: The Social model of disability (pp. 1–18). Josua, L. M. (2013). Challenges of inclusive education of learners with visual impairments to school management: A case study of Gabriel Taapopi secondary school in Oshana education region in Namibia [Master’s thesis, University of Namibia]. University of Namibia Research repository. https://repository.unam.edu.na/handle/11070/887 Levitt, J. M. (2017). Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated: in response to Mike Oliver. Disability and Society, 32(4), 589–594. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1300390 Liakou, M., & Manousou, E. (2015). Distance education for people with visual impairments. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 18(1), 72–84. https://doi.org/10.1515/eurodl-2015-0005 Luque, L. (2018). On the inclusion of learners with visual impairment in computing education programs in Brazil: practices of educators and perceptions of visually impaired learners. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13173-018-0068-0 Mahyoob, M. (2020). Challenges of e-Learning during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by EFL learners. Arab World English Journal, 11(4), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no4.23 McKenzie, J. A., & Dalton, E. M. (2020). Universal design for learning in inclusive education policy in South Africa. African Journal of Disability, 9, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/AJOD.V9I0.776 Ministry of Education. (2013). Sector Policy on Inclusive Education. 1–52. Mole, H. (2012). A US model for inclusion of disabled students in higher education settings : the social model of disability and Universal Design. 14(3), 62–86. National Council of Higher Education. (2018). Namibia higher education statistical yearbook (NHESY). Reed, M., & Curtis, K. (2012). Experiences of students with visual impairments in Canadian higher education. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 106(7), 414–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482x1210600704 Sheyapo, M. (2017). Perspectives of Lecturers on Pedagogical Inclusion of Students with Visual Impairments at Higher education institutions in Namibia [Master's Thesis, University of Namibia] University of Namibia Research repository. https://repository.unam.edu.na/handle/11070/887 Tichauya, C. H., Alexander, C. R., Paul, M., Campus, M. R., Campus, M. R., & Campus, M. R. (2014). The forgotten tribe in ODL systems: challenges faced by visually impaired students in institutions of higher learning. 410–421. UNESCO. (1998). World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century: Vision and Action World Conference on Higher Education (1998): Main provisions relating to the right to education. Human Rights. Williams, M., Pollard, E., Langley, J., Houghton, A.-M., & Zozimo, J. (2017). Models of support for 94 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 students with disabilities: Report to HEFCE. November, 1–134. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/HEFCE,2014/Content/Pubs/Independentresearch/2017/Models, of,support,for,students,with,disabilities/2017_modelsofsupport_(updated).pdf 95 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 OVERCOMING GENDER IMBALANCE IN ICT-RELATED JOBS T. Luckho, P. Appavoo, R. Doomun, P. Dookhun, Y. Boodhun, and T. Jutton Open University of Mauritius, Réduit (t.luckho@open.ac.mu) Abstract According to a report by the United Nations, women worldwide are at high risk of losing out compared to their male counterparts when talking about tomorrow’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) jobs. For every 20 jobs lost in competing industries, only one woman is expected to be hired in the STEM field, whereas out of every four jobs lost in competing industries, one man is expected to be employed in the STEM field. This gender bias is also observed in the Mauritian information, communication and technology (ICT) sector. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the origin of this bias and how education can be the bridge to this employment gap. This study was conducted across the ICT industry in Mauritius. The main objectives were to compare the number of girls and boys who had opted for Computer Science at School Certificate level over the last four years and to assess the perception of women of the working conditions prevailing in the sector, identifying the challenges they face. A quantitative research design was adopted. First, secondary data were extracted from the Mauritius Examination Syndicate (MES) reports from 2015–2019. The second phase of data collection was done via a questionnaire survey administered to women already working in the ICT sector. The main observations from the survey were that working in the Mauritian ICT sector was tedious, sometimes to the detriment of their work– life balance. However, most respondents believed that working in that sector offered promotional prospects and was associated with high socio-economic status. Nevertheless, they insisted on the need for more incentives to encourage women to opt for an ICT career, as they felt that the sector was mostly male dominated. Keywords: gender bias, STEM jobs, ICT career INTRODUCTION It is a fact that women and girls make up half of the world’s population. While there are growing efforts geared towards promoting gender equality as per the Sustainable Development Goal 5, there are still existing loopholes preventing its proper materialisation. According to a UN report published in July 2017, ICT is key towards helping drive gender equality. The report Emerging TrendsICT4SDG/SDG5 (2018) shows that there is presently a 200-million-person shortage of ICT-skilled workers around the world, and despite the increasing number of women completing tertiary education, this is not filling the gap. In the same vein, Manpower (2015) states that the global “talent shortage” is at 38%, with the top 10 hardest jobs to fill in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) professions. Given the increasing labour and skills mismatch and gender disparity, it is imperative to explore the situation in the Mauritian context and come up with ways to reduce the gender gap in the ICT sector while also ensuring a proper career choice by skilled girls graduating in this field. Mauritius has around 700 ICT-BPO-based enterprises, and the ICT industry currently employs over 21 500 professionals. In line with the Government strategy to move Mauritius towards a full-fledged digital economy, the information and communications (ICT) sector is expected to grow by 6%, according to Statistics Mauritius (2017). The goal of the Economic Vision 2030 of the Government of Mauritius is to transform the ICT industry into a key sector by fostering innovation and creativity and developing a sustainable and high value added-economy that will provide more accessible and higher96 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 value opportunities for citizens. This clearly shows that the ICT sector is one of the major pillars of the economy in Mauritius. However, according to the ESI (2018) report, when we look at the number of students enrolled in tertiary institutions by field of study, it is seen that women were under-represented in science-related fields such as engineering (2.0% versus 10.3%) and information technology (5.4% versus 15.0%). In this context, a study was carried out across the ICT industry in Mauritius to explore the ratio of women working in the ICT sector and assess the working conditions and challenges they face to eventually map out the reasons why they opted for ICT subjects and a career in this field. A two-phased quantitative approach was employed; this approach initially involved the use of secondary data to understand the trends (per gender) in the pass rate of students opting for Computer Science at School Certificate level and second, a survey analysis to understand the working conditions and challenges faced by women currently working in the ICT sector. The findings of this research provided empirical evidence on the working conditions of women in the Mauritian ICT sector and may assist authorities in devising new strategies to attract more girls to follow ICT courses. LITERATURE REVIEW Despite the significant progress achieved by Mauritius in the last decades, the female unemployment rate is very high; more than half of working-age females do not form part of the labour force (IMF, 2016). The female labour-force participation in Mauritius has remained far below the benchmark in upper middle-income countries. Although Mauritian women perform well in respect of educational achievement, this has not been reflected in more employment, wage equality, income levels, or political representatives and higher-level positions in public and private organisations. Nevertheless, the Government of Mauritius has decided to increase the female labour participation from 43.3% currently to 50% by 2030, as recommended in its Strategic Plan 2017–2020 (Strategic Plan 2017– 2020 – MOFED, 2017). Several studies have been conducted in various parts of the world, aiming to identify factors that led to the under-representation of women in the ICT sector. Dunn and Samuels (2016) conducted a study to examine factors causing women’s unequal access to the Caribbean ICT industry and determine the consequences and possible solutions. They observed that Caribbean women with superior qualifications did not seem to have as many opportunities to advance in the ICT sector compared to their male colleagues. Most senior positions in the ICT field were occupied by men. The results showed that unequal access to ICT for women led to gender gaps in the ICT sector employment. Another study by Khayyat (2014) focused on female employees’ access to training and development in the ICT sector. The study revealed that training activities increased the gender gap, since male employees were given preference over their female colleagues when it came to technical and expensive training. The results showed that a gender pay gap and social challenges hindered female employees’ potential for career growth. Moreover, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, 2018) showed how much the employment gap was widening between women and men in the ICT sector. Even if employment growth in ICT is more than eight times higher than the average employment growth in the EU, only 17% of the almost eight million specialists are women. Mauritius is no less in this aspect. According to the World Economic Forum (Global Gender Gap Report, 2018), the global rank of Mauritius is 109 out of 149 countries, with a global gender gap score of 0.663. Micheni et al. (2015) conducted a study to examine ICT-career gender exclusion, the status and trend of job opportunities in the Kenyan ICT sector and the contribution of the narrow definition of ICT. They found that there was a distinct gap between perception and use of ICTs and their applications between the different genders. The study established that the narrow definition negatively influenced ICT as a career of choice among girls. Broadening the ICT definition to include ICT-related careers that have more social rather than technical aspects accordingly is likely to influence more women to join the field. 97 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 On another note, Valenduc (2011) reviewed research that focused on education and training, examined the gendered representation of computer science and technology and the ways in which this impacted on school guidance of students in secondary and higher education. He also conducted research focusing on women’s work and the labour market, examining gender inequalities or discrimination in working conditions, quality of employment, careers, and work–life balance. He stated that women working in ICT professions did not report any specific problem with technology itself. They described the ICT universe as creative, stimulating, fascinating and a source of satisfaction. Their professional orientation was not strongly influenced by their family environment. Furthermore, although previous studies provided evidence of demanding working conditions, particularly concerning working hours, the author indicated that women did not consider working conditions as the main factor that explained the limited presence of women in the profession. He described the current situation of women in the ICT sector as characterised by three paradoxes. The first being the fact that despite various efforts, the situation of women in ICT professions had not improved. Secondly, he observed that many female ICT professionals did not have ICT educational backgrounds. Finally, he stated that there was no correlation between the gender gap in general and that in ICT professions. According to Dasgupta and Stout (2014), the UK STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) industries reported that women and girls tended to give up on STEM careers because they believed that such careers were not for people like them. Furthermore, the report indicated that female and other minority groups were under-represented in the STEM industry. It was found that teachers often had lower (stereotypical) expectations of under-represented groups, including women in STEM, thereby reinforcing their non-STEM self-identity. The most important factor would be for girls to self-identify with STEM. However, the report showed that more female undergraduates were studying languages than those studying engineering, computing, physical sciences and mathematics combined. Furthermore, the Engineering UK statistics showed in 2011 that only half of women with an engineering and technology degree work in the sector compared to 2/3 males. The WISE analysis of the Labour Force Survey showed that from 2012–2014, ICT was taken up at a much greater rate by men, with a 7% increase in the number of male ICT professionals to 723 000 (3.5% for women to 125 000). Women made up only 15% of this category. Moreover, there had been a 15% decline in the number of female ICT technicians to 40 000 (4% increase for men to 146 000). Women only made up 21.5% of this category in 2014 compared with 25% in 2012. It was noted that the UK had the lowest participation of women in the STEM workforce in Europe, particularly in engineering and ICT. METHODOLOGY Given the nature of the research that was undertaken – whereby data on the factors affecting the choice of women to embark on a career in the information and technology (IT) sector had to be collected at several stages of the decision-making pyramid, each having its own sampling requirement – a purely quantitative research design was conducted. Quantitative research employs descriptive and inferential statistics to test the veracity of the hypotheses using real-life information. For this research, a trend analysis was used, followed by a questionnaire analysis. Trend analysis is a technique whereby historical trends of a given variable are studied to determine the future movement of that variable. A trend is generally defined as the “direction the variable is taking during a specified period of time”. A trend can be both upward and downward. 98 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 1: Data collection framework (secondary data) Research phase Data collection Data analysis Methodology Process Reports from the Mauritius Examination Syndicate were examined, and data related to the enrolment figure and performance of boys/girls opting to study IT were extracted. MES Annual Reports The data on enrolment/performance were either graphed or represented in tables. The underlying trends were then discussed. Graphical representation “Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. It is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics” (Sanders et al., 2009, pg125). The main goal of Phase I was to assess the perception of women working in the ICT sector of their current working conditions to understand if the latter were perceived as gender biased. Understanding the current state of play is essential for future policy-making. It helps the researcher understand what is working and what is not working in the sector and thus offers more insight into the areas where improvements are needed. Table 2: Data collection framework (primary data) Research phase Methodology Remark Filters included: Sampling method Purposive sampling • • Gender (only female) Job preference (currently working in IT sector or have IT-related jobs) N = 135 Initially 175 questionnaires were distributed to the target population, of which only 135 were received back, resulting in a return rate of 77.14%. The sample consisted of participants from both the main private ICT companies in Mauritius and public officers from several ministries and parastatal bodies. Data collection Structured questionnaires Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The questionnaire was administered both face-to-face and online via Google Forms. The majority of questions in the questionnaire were in the format of five-point Likert-scale questions. Data analysis Descriptive and inference statistics Both descriptive (measure of location, dispersion, etc.) and inference/hypothesis testing (non-parametric mean tests) were used. Sample size Reliability test of the structured questionnaire The Cronbach alpha test is used to assess reliability/internal consistency when a set of items is used to measure a variable during a survey. The reliability of any given measurement refers to the extent to which it is a consistent measure of a concept. The threshold to decide what makes a “good” or “bad” alpha coefficient is arbitrary and depends on the way the particular variable is measured. Conventional wisdom in statistics recommends that an alpha coefficient between 0.65 and 0.8 (or higher in many cases) is a “good coefficient”, whereas a figure less than 0.5 is termed as unacceptable. 99 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The table below shows the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the data obtained from questionnaire 1 on each of the variable/constructs under study. All the alpha coefficients were well above 0.5, meaning that the data were of “good” quality to go ahead with further analysis. Table 3: Variable/construct Variable/Construct Cronbach’s Alpha No. of Items Job Characteristics 0.731 12 Career Opportunities 0.642 7 Gender Bias 0.538 8 Influence Factors 0.788 13 Health and Safety 0.854 4 Job Perception 0.753 6 Individual Differences 0.650 7 Ethical issues Ethical considerations were attended to in the study. First, it was important to assure the anonymity and confidentiality of respondents so that they did not hesitate to provide truthful and accurate answers. Respondents were assured that their responses would be kept confidential and anonymous and would not be revealed to any irrelevant party. They were also told that the questionnaire would be used for academic purposes only. Moreover, to assure anonymity, respondents were not required to write their names anywhere on the questionnaire. The cover letter attached also explained the purpose of conducting the survey, and the personal details of the researcher were provided to respondents so that they could contact the researcher in case they had any queries. Moreover, participants were informed that their responses would be used for aggregation purposes and that they could withdraw from the project whenever they wanted to. ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY DATA Before taking stock of the opinions of women who had not opted for an ICT career, this research sought to compare the number of boys and girls actually studying Computer Studies in our schools. Analysis of data collected from the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate shows that for four consecutive years, the percentage of boys studying Computer Studies at the School Certificate level was higher than for girls (table 4). Around 1 000 more boys studied that subject at School Certificate level, although, overall, there were more girls in our schools. Table 4 also shows that the percentage of boys studying Computer Studies kept increasing from 47.3% (2015) to 53.8% (2018), whereas the percentage of girls for the same period remained around 30%. The rippling effect was that less girls studied the subject at the Higher School Certificate level. Hence, less girls could opt for higher studies in ICT, with the result that less of them would be eligible for an ICT job. This trend will certainly account for a shortage in the number of women holding ICT positions and if not addressed, it will over the coming years aggravate the situation. Matters are even worse in the UK, whereby females now make up less than one tenth of Computer Science students (Sumner, 2018). Girls still perceive that Computer Studies is a difficult and boring subject meant mainly for “nerdy” boys. Therefore, they go for the more traditional “female” subjects such as history, languages, and the arts. But it was worth noting that girls performed better than boys, given the higher pass rate over the years (table 5). This information could certainly have an impact on girls’ perception that ICT is a male-dominated sector. 100 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 There is thus a need for urgent action from relevant authorities to reverse the situation and channel more girls into IT-focused education by helping more women become Computer Studies teachers. The National Computer Board in collaboration with other organisations and ministries could launch projects like “Girls in IT Excellence Awards” to help promote successful female role models and encourage more women onto this career path. It is also important to further encourage girls to study STEM subjects like Computer Studies, otherwise, this might represent a loss of potential talent in the computing workforce. Figure 1: Percentage of girls and boys taking Computer Studies at School Certificate level Pass Rate for Computer Studies at SC Level 79.07% 80% 78% 76% 73.71% 72.64% 74% 72% 73.42% 70.15% 70% 68% 69.95% 68.78% 66% 68.14% 64% 62% 2015 2016 2017 Boys 2018 Girls Figure 2: Pass rate for Computer Studies at School Certificate leve 101 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table Error! No text of specified style in document.: Total number of candidates who opted for computer studies at School Certificate level TOTAL NUMBER OF CANDIDATES WHO OPTED FOR COMPUTER STUDIES AT SC 2015 2016 2017 2018 Total No/(%) Total No/(%) who Total Examined who opted Examined opted for Examined opted for Examined opted for at SC for at SC Computer at SC at SC Computer Studies No/(%) who Computer Total Studies No/(%) who Computer Studies Studies BOYS 6 931 3 280 47.3% 6 824 3 506 51.4% 6 617 3 457 52.2% 6 488 3 488 53.8% GIRLS 8 137 2 382 29.3% 7 984 2 522 31.6% 8 069 2 562 31.6% 8 111 2 442 30.1% TOTAL 15 068 5 662 37.6% 14 808 6 028 40.7% 14 686 6 019 41.0% 14 599 5 930 40.6% 102 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 5: Pass Rate for School Certificate examination (Computer Studies) PASS RATE FOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (COMPUTER STUDIES) 2015 Examined Pass 2016 Pass rate Examine (%) d Pass 2017 Pass rate (%) Examined Pass 2018 Pass rate (%) Pass rate Examined Pass (%) BOYS 3 280 2 256 68.78% 3 506 2 389 68.14% 3 457 2 418 69.95% 3 488 2 561 73.42% GIRLS 2 382 1 671 70.15% 2 522 1 859 73.71% 2 562 1 861 72.64% 2 442 1 931 79.07% TOTAL 5 662 3 927 69.36% 6 028 4 248 70.47% 6 019 4 279 71.09% 5 930 4 492 75.75% 103 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY DATA This section of the report presents an analysis of the data collected during the first questionnaire administered to women already working in the ICT sector in both private and public companies. This phase of the project aimed to assess if working conditions in the ICT sector was gender biased. Next, a summary is provided of the demographic profile of the 135 respondents who participated in the survey. Demographic data are often used in research to help identify certain key characteristics of the target group, such as age, gender, et cetera. This enables researchers to judge whether the sample is representative of the population under study. Demographic information also helps segment respondents into different market profiles. Demographic profile of the respondents Data (figure 3) shows that around 73% of the respondents were young adults (18–35 years) who held various positions in their organisation, varying from managerial to operational through technical and administrative. Age Distribution 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 37% 36% 18% 9% 18-25 years 26-35 years 36-45 years ≥ 46 years Figure 3: Age distribution The survey also showed that 78.5% of the participants held post-HSC qualifications: 14.7% had a diploma; 47.4% had an undergraduate degree; and 16.4% a master’s degree. It was also observed that around 35.3% of the respondents who worked in the sector had never study ICT at the secondary school level; however, these participants were mainly involved in administrative (8.6%) and operational (15.5%) duties in the sector. Job characteristics and working conditions in the ICT sector At a time of rapid digitalisation of its economy and growth in its ICT sector, Mauritius is facing two major problems: first, a shortage of specialists to work in the ICT sector, especially at the technical level; and second, an under-representation of women in the sector. This slows the objective of local authorities to “end all forms of discrimination against all women everywhere” as part of their commitment to SDG 5. While women around the world are, on average, pursuing higher levels of education than their male counterparts, it was found that only about 17% of them end up following a STEM profession (EIGE, 2017). Dana et al. (2006) observed that unexpected obstacles and risky situations often hinder women’s careers. Timms et al. (2008) identified factors such as good social image, flexible working hours, among others, as key determinants of a woman’s choice to embark on a career in the ICT sector. 104 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Respondents answered a set of questions inspired from the above studies and sought responses related to job characteristic and working conditions in the ICT sector. The results obtained are summarised in figure 4: Flexitime Worklife Balance 7.0% 12.5% 8.6% 14.1% Maternity Leave 2.4%5.6% Safe for Pregnant Women Hygiene Facilities Holidays Well-Defined Schemes of Duties Job Security 7.8% 28.1% 30.5% 38.3% 23.8% 27.3% 38.1% 10.9% 32.0% 7.0% 7.0% 8.7% 34.6% 15.6% 31.5% 26.0% 3.9% 7.9% 18.8% 36.7% 15.7% 11.7% 30.2% 30.5% 33.6% 5.5% 7.9% 21.9% 43.3% 33.9% 29.9% 9.4% 17.3% 24.4% Flexible Hours 3.1% 8.6% 19.5% 44.5% 24.2% Shift Systems 3.1% 7.8% 21.1% 43.8% 24.2% High Pressure 4.7% 5.5% Strongly Disagree 21.1% Disagree 46.1% Neutral Agree 22.7% Strongly Agree Figure 4: Job characteristics and working conditions Work–life balance policies include, for instance, various rights relating to care-related leave and care services, but also working arrangements that would allow employees to find a suitable balance between their work responsibilities and their family and other responsibilities. The results show that more than 70% of respondents agreed with the statement that working in the ICT sector in Mauritius was equivalent to working under high pressure. Even though most companies in the sector had shift systems and flexible hours, only around 54.3% of women agreed with the statement that there was job security in the sector, while the other half were either undecided or literally disagreed with the statement. In addition, only around 39% of the respondents agreed with the statement that the ICT sector in Mauritius catered for a proper work–life balance. Figure 5 below summarises the answers obtained from the respondents regarding their perception of whether the working conditions in the ICT sector was women friendly. Around 54% of the respondents agreed with the latter statement. 105 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Perception of Working Conditions Agree 39% Strongly Agree 15% Strongly Disagree 4% Disagree 15% Neutral 27% Figure 5: Perception of working conditions Career opportunities and job retention The second set of questions in the first questionnaire was to investigate the perception of female workers of their career opportunities in the ICT sector in Mauritius and to understand the reasons why these women kept working in the sector. Overall, the results presented in figure 6 show that as regards career opportunities, female respondents were unanimous about the fact that opportunities existed in the ICT sector in Mauritius for personal development. Around 59% believed that holding a job in that sector was associated with future promotional prospects and high socio-economic status. However, it is important to note that women (more than 83.6%) thought that more incentives needed to be provided for women to choose a career in the ICT sector. Generally, when prompted about opportunities to take up managerial positions, a significant percentage of respondents (44%) agreed with the statement. 106 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 19.5% 18.9% 20.3% 22.0% 23.4% 46.9% 22.0% 40.9% 39.8% 32.0% 53.9% 33.1% 36.7% 26.6% 35.2% 30.7% 16.4% 10.2% 3.9% Promotional Prospects 12.5% 0.8% 3.1% 8.7% 00.8% 7.8% 1.6% Personal Development High Socio Economic Status Strongly Disagree Neutral 2.4% Gender Neutral High Adverts Probability for Management Position More Incentives for Women Disagree 20.5% 6.3% 3.1% Agree Strongly Agree Figure 6: Career opportunities Figure 7 shows the various reasons that kept respondents from working in the ICT sector. The two main reasons were job satisfaction (34.6%) and the nature of the sector (25.9%). Around 13.6% and 11.5% selected work environment and reward, respectively, as the main reasons that kept them working in that sector. Women also valued the social image associated with working in the ICT sector. Job Retention 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 34.6% 15.0% 25.9% 10.0% 5.0% 11.5% 13.6% 11.1% 3.3% 0.0% Reward Job Satisfaction Social Image Work Environment Love the Sector No Choice Figure 7: Job retention Gender bias James et al. (2006) conducted a study commissioned by the Embassy of Finland as part of a larger study to investigate mechanisms for stimulating the increased participation of women in high-level ICT skills in South Africa. The authors found that women were still discriminated against vis-à-vis men to take up management positions (only 18–20%), and they still earned less than men. There were many barriers that kept women from being promoted to management and executive positions. Most 107 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 were related to misconceptions that women did not show leadership potential and behaved differently from traditional male leaders in ways that would be detrimental to themselves and an organisation. In line with the above, a series of questions were posed to respondents to gauge their perception of the level of gender bias in the Mauritian ICT sector. Figure 8 shows that women in general believed the ICT sector was gender biased being male dominated. Respondents pointed out that it was very difficult for them to aspire to senior positions or technical positions when in competition with their male counterparts: 43.7% agreed that it was difficult for them to move up the career ladder. When asked questions about gender bias in the Mauritian ICT sector, 56.3% of the participants agreed that the sector was male dominated, and 60.9% opined that senior positions in the sector were occupied by male. A majority of respondents, however, did acknowledge that their male co-workers were quite supportive in their daily activities. These findings are in line with those of a recent study conducted by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in 2018 that highlighted that the gap between men and women securing a job in ICT was widening every year. 5.5% no dressing restriction 7.8% 10.9% senior positions occupied by men 7.0% industry male dominated 8.3% handle heavy equipment Disagree 18.8% 37.5% 21.9% 17.3% 35.4% 28.1% 34.7% 17.4% Neutral 28.8% 34.4% 32.3% 6.3% 8.7% supportive male coworkers Strongly Disagree 14.8% 25.0% 35.9% 20.3% 20.8% 5.6% 10.4% same chances to join technical positions 23.4% 21.9% 32.8% 16.4% Agree 10.9% 32.8% 28.1% 14.8% 13.3% difficulties move up career ladder 12.5% 6.3% 43.0% 27.3% 10.9% recruitment and selection favours women 11.6% Strongly Agree Figure 8: Gender bias Gender bias in the private sector only? In this section of the paper, using the same data collected on women already working in the ICT sector, an attempt is made to investigate whether the gender bias identified above was specific to the private sector, or whether it can be generalised to the public sector as well. In the public sector, things are expected to be a bit different, as pay schemes and conditions of service are regulated by the PRB (2016). Hence, the following hypothesis was proposed: • • H0: There is no difference in the perception of gender discrimination in the public and private sectors. H1: There is a difference in the perception of gender discrimination in the public and private sectors. 108 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The Mann-Whitney (MW) test is used to compare variation between the recorded responses from two independent groups when the dependent variable study is not normally distributed. The MW test statistics are provided in table 6 and 7. Table 6: Ranks N Mean rank Sum of ranks Public 35 62.84 2199.50 Private 90 63.06 5675.50 Total 125 Type of Company Male dominated Table 7: Mann-Whitney U test statistics Male dominated Mann-Whitney U 1569.500 Wilcoxon W 2199.500 Z -.031 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .975 The significance value of the MW-U test statistic is given by 0.95, which is greater than the benchmark level of 5%. Hence, it can be concluded that there was no difference in the perception of gender bias from respondents in the public and private sectors. This result is in line with recent findings by Ahmed and Nasser (2015) who discovered that gender discrimination faced by females at work does not happen in the private sector only but is also present in public organisations. Is the perception of gender bias age related? In addition to the above, it was also explored whether the age group of respondents might have had a confounding effect on the perception of respondents of gender bias in the sector. As such, a second hypothesis was tested as follows: • • H0: There is no difference in the perception of gender discrimination among the different age groups of respondents. H1: There is a difference in the perception of gender discrimination among the different age groups of respondents. The KW test statistics are provided in table 8 and table 9 below: Table 8: Ranks Male dominated 18–25 years old 26–35 years old 36–45 years old ≥ 46 years old Total N 46 49 26 Mean rank 52.46 72.88 73.31 11 80.73 132 109 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 9: Kruskal Wallis test statisticsa, b Male dominated Chi-Square 10.647 df Asymp. Sig. 3 .014 a. Kruskal Wallis test b. Grouping variable: Age group The significance value of the KW test statistic is given by 0.014, which is less than the benchmark level of 5%. Hence, it can be concluded that there was a difference in the perception of gender discrimination among the different age groups. This result corroborates the finding of Sanders (2005), who reported that gender differences in attitudes and behaviour were relatively small at younger ages but increased as people became older. Influential factors Studies such as that of Adya and Kaiser (2005) and Turner et al. (2002) pinpointed the huge influence that parents have on young women’s choice to take up employment in the sector. Out of the sample of women interviewed, Adya and Kaiser (2005) observed that around 73% of respondents identified their fathers as strong influencers in their career choice. In the same vein, a similar set of questions were administered to women already working in the ICT sector to investigate the influence of family, schools/teachers and authorities on their choice to take up a career in the sector. Figure 9 below summarises the responses obtained. Respondents generally agree that parents (45.7%), teachers (39.4%), siblings (69.3%) and having a role model in the field (67.5%) tended to influence their choice of choosing a career in the ICT sector. 14.2% Percentage 31.5% 11.8% 32.3% 13.4% 22.8% 33.9% 11.8% 11.9% 27.6% 25.4% 29.1% 13.4% 18.9% 8.7% 7.9% 6.3% 18.9% 13.2% 9.1% 24.8% 27.3% 18.9% 5.0% 19.2% 14.9% 33.9% 52.8% 46.5% 32.3% 3.1% 15.7% 37.0% 44.1% 34.1% 38.8% 42.1% 15.7% 15.7% 7.4% 5.8% 48.3% 48.8% 24.2% 18.2% 7.5% 13.2% 33.1% 34.6% 18.9% 16.5% 3.1% 18.9% 7.1% 4.7% 4.7% Strongly Disagree 19.8% 22.0% 8.7% 6.3% Disagree 22.8% 7.9% 4.7% Neutral 7.9% Agree Strongly Agree Figure 9: Summaries of respondents 110 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 10 shows that two thirds of the respondents (neutral responses were ignored) acknowledged the encouragement provided by their parents to choose a career in the ICT sector. The relevant authorities should, therefore, take necessary measures to organise information campaigns for parents to encourage girls to pursue an ICT job. Table 10: Parents encourage girls to take up an ICT job Frequency 11 18 40 21 90 Strongly disagree Disagree Valid Agree Strongly agree Total Per cent 12.2 20.0 44.4 23.3 100.0 Individual differences Individual differences are defined in the literature as “enduring psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another”, which is extremely useful to demarcate between each person's individuality. The most common types of individual differences used in research are: i. ii. iii. intelligence personality traits values. Women tended to give up on STEM careers because they perceived that such type of jobs were not meant for them. A set of questions related to individual differences were administered to the survey participants. The diagram below summaries the results: 100.0% 10.2% 9.4% 28.1% 28.9% 8.6% 90.0% 80.0% 35.9% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 28.9% 44.5% 50.8% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 20.3% 11.7% 7.8% 3.1% 5.5% 6.3% 0.0% Personality Strongly Disagree Innate Aptitudes Disagree Neutral Lack of Technical Capability Agree Strongly Agree Figure 10: Ease of women to cope with ICT jobs It was observed that 38.3% of the women who were interviewed agreed with the statement that “the personality of women make them suitable for the ICT sector; 38.3% thought that “[w]omen have 111 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 innate aptitude for ICT-related jobs”; and 44.5% were of the opinion that women lack the necessary technical skills to work in ICT-related jobs. CONCLUSION The aim of this study was to investigate the opinion of women about ICT-related jobs and the factors hindering them from embracing a career in the ICT sector. First, analysis of secondary data from the MES reports showed that despite a higher girl population in schools and their ability to perform better than boys in Computer Science, there were significantly lesser girls taking this subject at the School Certificate level. Over the years, the percentage of boys studying Computer Science kept increasing, while the percentage of girls remained nearly the same. Therefore, there is a need to encourage more girls to study Computer Science at school and thus be more prepared to choose ICT as a career. Girls’ ability to perform better than boys in Computer Science means that encouraging more girls to follow an ICT-related career would contribute to strengthening human capital in our ICT sector. A questionnaire was designed and administered to 135 working women in the ICT sector. It was observed that around 70% of the participants acknowledged that the ICT sector required working in shift systems and thus under high pressure. Two out of every three women agreed that working in the ICT sector did not offer a balanced work life. Only a minority of the respondents (11.8%) opined that there was not enough job security in the sector. Women in general (59%) believed that working in that sector offered promotional prospects and was associated with high socio-economic status. However, according to them, there was a need to provide more incentives to encourage women to opt for an ICT career. In general, it can be said that women enjoyed working in the ICT sector. Analysis of a set of items dealing with gender bias revealed that women felt discriminated against in ICT-related jobs. They opined that the sector was mostly male dominated, and career opportunities and promotions at work were restricted for them. However, younger women were less concerned with gender bias, hence showing that the younger generation might be equally at ease as their male counterparts in that sector. Another set of items helped to understand the factors that influenced women in their choice of an ICT career. In addition to parents and teachers, the influence of siblings already working in this sector and women role models in the field were reported as significant signposts directing girls/women in their choice. RECOMMENDATIONS This study revealed that there is definitely a digital divide favouring men for ICT-related jobs. The first phase of the study gathered women working in the ICT sector for a group discussion. The participants opined that access and opportunities to jobs in the ICT sector were influenced by numerous factors. Moreover, companies should give women the same opportunity as men to climb the ladder and be promoted to higher-level jobs in the ICT sector. It is also recommended that stakeholders provide appropriate training in the field of ICT to attract a number of women to the sector to meet the increasing demand for skilled IT professionals. The conclusions drawn from the study and recommendations were as follows: Girls outperform boys in Computer Studies, but there is still a higher percentage of boys doing Computer Studies in our schools. Recommendation 1: Schools should provide wider access to girls to Computer Studies through awareness programmes. This subject should form part of the different subject combinations offered at school. Opinions about gender bias for ICT-related jobs persist and discriminate against girls. Recommendation 2: Sensitisation programmes should be conducted in schools by female role models to help dissipate misconceptions about ICT jobs. 112 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Cultural and societal attitudes do influence girls opting for an ICT job and women working in that sector. This is closely related to the perception that ICT jobs are more for men, given both the nature of jobs and working conditions. Recommendation 3: (a) A number of video programmes can be produced showing women successfully and happily working in the ICT sector. Frequent broadcasting of such videos on our TV channels and in our schools is recommended. (b) ICT organisations should provide a conducive working environment that would attract more women to the sector. There is a feeling that while promotional prospects exist in the sector, males are more apt to aspire to higher posts. Recommendation 4: While awaiting more women to join that sector, organisations might introduce a dose of positive discrimination when promoting employees to higher posts by reserving a quota for women. A “Women Excellence Award” can be organised at different levels, including one at the national level to acknowledge and reward women who have excelled in the sector. Recommendation 5: Stakeholders should provide appropriate training in the field of ICT and attract a number of women to the sector to meet the increasing demand for skilled IT professionals. REFERENCES Adya, M., & Kaiser, K. M. (2005). Early determinants of women in the IT workforce: a model of girls' career choices. Information Technology & People, 18(3), 230–259. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840510615860 Ahuja, M. K. (2002). Women in the information technology profession: A literature review, synthesis and research agenda. European Journal of Information Systems, 11(1), 20–34. Anon. (2019). Retrieved on February 26, 2019, from https://www.wctfct.com/sites/default/files/wct-upthenumbers-report-2018-final.pdf Antonio, A., & Tuffley, D. (2014). The gender digital divide in developing countries. Future Internet, 6(4), 673–687. Ayebi-Arthur, K. (2011). 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Koltame PVDT College of Education for Women, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai (mahesh.koltame@pvdt.sndt.ac.in) Abstract In this study, the researcher analyzed learners’ expectations of massive open online courses (MOOCs), their learning engagement, and satisfaction. This paper reports the findings of a study of the relationships between learners’ learning engagement and their satisfaction with their overall performances in an online course. This study was conducted with 224 participants who had successfully completed a 90-hour, four-credit School Leadership Capacity Building (SLCB) MOOC (first offering from 07 September to 20 December 2020). The researcher collected data by means of a pre-course survey, learning engagement analytics, and a post-course learner satisfaction survey. Data were coded and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. After the data analysis with descriptive statistics, the researcher found most MOOC learners expected simple but more interactive learning activities and reading material in small chunks. Also, the research showed there was a significant correlation between learners’ confidence in their pre-ICT skills and their learning engagement, and the association between satisfaction and engagement was significant and positively correlated. Furthermore, there was a weak but positive significant correlation between satisfaction and engagement with their overall performances. In this course, the researcher found that those learners who were connected with each other in their small groups (maybe the groups were based on country or institute) engaged more and performed well in the course. The blending of a few synchronous interaction sessions boosted learners’ confidence and interest in the MOOC, and it helped to sustain their motivation in the course. Keywords: MOOC, learning expectations, learning engagement and learning satisfaction INTRODUCTION The nature of the 21st-century world is dynamic and digital. The impact of technology on 21st-century education is very high. Since technology is rapidly evolving and needs specialists to deliver highquality e-learning, a vibrant ecosystem must be encouraged to create solutions that not only solve India’s challenges of scale, diversity and equity but also evolve in keeping with the rapid changes in technology whose half-life reduces with each passing year (NEP, 2020). Technology in education is a journey, not a destination (NEP, 2020). Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are rapidly emerging as the high standard of lifelong learning in 21st-century education. It has opened the door to high-quality global learning. It has the potential to make education more equitable and inclusive through open educational resources (OERs). MOOCs could well replace some forms of traditional teaching (such as large lecture classes). However, MOOCs are more likely to remain an important supplement or alternative to other conventional education methods. They are not on their own a solution to the high cost of higher education, although MOOCs are and will continue to be an important factor in forcing change (Dousay, 2015). In this pandemic, the whole world is engaged in remote learning practices. Among these practices, online modalities and MOOCs have become popular, although there are ongoing debates about MOOCs regarding the perspective of learners’ expectations, patterns of their learning engagement, and their learning satisfaction. 116 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 To comprehend “MOOC” (or massive open online courses), “massive” means a platform that is designed for the public at large. “Open” means the course/platform being free or being given out at a very nominal charge, giving them access to different societal sections and different demographics and economic strata. “Online” implies that the courses are omnipresent – easily accessed anywhere (Kumar et al., 2020). Thus, they are defined as something online that has an option of free and open registration, along with a shared curriculum and pedagogy with public and open outcomes (Macleod et al., 2014; McAuley et al., 2010). As per the UGC concept note on the blended mode of teaching–learning, MOOCs aim to provide real-time education online with the help of various features like videos, study materials, quizzes, and online exams. MOOCs also try to make it more efficient than real-time education in classrooms by removing time constraints and location constraints. Also, MOOCs provide interactive discussion sessions for the user through interactive discussion forums that help to build a community for students and professors (UGC, 2020). There are currently major structural limitations in MOOCs for developing deep or transformative learning or for developing the high-level knowledge and skills needed in a digital age (Dousay, 2015). The more massive the course, the more likely participants are to feel overload, anxiety and a sense of loss if some instructor, intervention, or structure is not imposed (Knox, 2014). Firmin et al. (2014) have shown that when there is some form of instructor “encouragement and support of student effort and engagement,” results improve for all participants in MOOCs. MOOCs tend to attract those who already have a high level of education; however, wide access and high dropout rates are some of the major concerns of MOOCs. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect the learning satisfaction of learners. In this regard, several investigations have already been conducted, and some factors have been identified, like level of interaction, networking opportunities, course pedagogy, course content, assessment features, the presence of technology, and feedback-sharing mechanisms (Kumar & Kumar, 2020). A learner satisfaction survey is one of the important instruments to investigate the reasons of discontinuance of an online course. Detailed analysis of a learner satisfaction survey would help educators understand learners’ expectations of the course, and they can work on these factors, which may lead to increased learner satisfaction with MOOCs, thereby addressing high dropout rates (Pande & Mythili, 2021). In this study, the researcher analyzed learners’ expectations of MOOCs, their learning engagement and satisfaction and reports on the findings of a study of the relationships between learners’ learning engagement and their satisfaction with their overall performances in an online course. RESEARCH QUESTIONS i. ii. iii. iv. What are learners’ expectations of MOOCs? What factors affect learners’ learning engagement? What is the level of learners’ learning satisfaction? Is there any relation between learners’ learning engagement and their satisfaction? METHODOLOGY Quantitative and qualitative research methods – that is, a survey and content analysis – were used in this study. The researcher collected data by means of a pre-course survey, learning engagement analytics, and a post-course learner satisfaction survey, along with the content analysis of learners’ reflective learning diaries. In the course, the learners were assigned a reflective learning diary and some descriptive questions in feedback after each module. The reflective learning diary contained responses to questions like: What is the driving force to complete these learning activities? How do these activities support my knowledge, skills, and attitudes to capacity building as a school leader? What do you like most in this module, and why? What are you expecting from the next module? 117 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Responses to all these questions were analyzed using an analysis chart. For analysis, eight key MOOC learning engagement factors were considered: 1. course content; 2. pedagogy; 3. expert intervention in the discussion forum and synchronous discussion sessions; 4. freedom; 5. flexibility; 6. continuous formative assessment; and 7. continuous communication and support by mentors. Data were coded and analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics like percentage, mean and correlation. Participants The study included 224 participants who had successfully completed a 90-hour, four-credit School Leadership Capacity Building (SLCB) MOOC that was offered by PVDT College of Education for women, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, from 07 September to 20 December 2020. Table 1: Learner demographics Gender Characteristics Male Female Age group < 20 Years 20-29 Years 30-39 Years 40-49 Years 50-59 Years 60 >Years Primary spoken language English Hindi Marathi Tamil Spanish Malayalam Odia Telegu Bangla Swahili Punjabi Kiswahili Kinyarwanda Gujarati Konkani Geographic Region Africa America Asia Central America Job profile Headmaster/Principal Vice Principal Supervisor Teacher Teacher educator Pupil teacher/research scholars Others Frequency % 82 142 36.60 63.39 05 35 86 68 27 03 2.23 15.62 38.39 30.35 12.05 1.33 84 28 38 14 09 09 09 03 09 03 03 06 03 03 03 37.5 12.5 16.96 6.25 4.01 4.01 4.01 1.33 4.01 1.33 1.33 2.67 1.33 1.33 1.33 36 12 167 09 16.07 5.35 74.55 4.01 27 16 08 68 51 36 20.05 7.14 3.57 30.35 22.76 16.07 18 8.03 118 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Research Q 1: What are the learners’ expectations of MOOC? Instruments and data analysis To study students’ learning expectations, the researcher collected quantitative and qualitative data through an online pre-course survey and student feedback after completing each module. Along with the feedback, students were asked a descriptive question regarding what they were expecting of the next module. The pre-course survey was designed with a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree). The scale consisted of 25 statements related to the seven major aspects (structure, content, pedagogy, sharing and discussions, assessment, expert intervention and learning support, and ICT use) of the MOOC. Table 2: Shows the percentage of learner expectations of MOOCs Aspects of MOOC Expectation statements Course structure There should be no due dates for learning activities and assignment. I should be able to choose learning activities as per my interest. The course should be multilingual. All course content and learning activities should be completely open without any prerequisites. Downloadable text material should be available Engaging video and animation should be given I feel Infographics and pictorial content would be facilitate my learning Video, text, graphics should be interactive. Case studies, scenarios should be used for a realistic experience It should contain useful learning activities to make the learning experience centered. There should be diversity in Learning activities. There should be learning activities that can practice skills in the real field. I love to learn from short, engaging presentations followed by reflection I should be able to communicate with all co-learners There should be scope for the sharing of ideas and experiences with co-learners. Course content Course pedagogy Sharing & discussions Strongly agree (%) Agree (%) Neutral (%) 80 14 03 03 70 10 00 12 08 26 38 02 29 05 73 11 03 13 00 75 23 00 02 00 69 31 00 00 00 68 12 07 13 00 57 23 00 08 12 79 21 00 00 00 88 12 00 00 00 77 23 00 00 00 66 27 00 07 00 66 16 06 10 02 59 35 00 06 00 44 48 02 06 00 119 Disagree (%) Strongly disagree (%) 0% NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Course assessment Expert intervention, feedback and learning support Use of ICT In the discussion forum, the mentor or facilitator should remain neutral. Quizzes should be included to promote and direct the learning. Assignment should be easy. 26 16 00 20 38 91 06 0 02 00 60 40 0 0 0 Assessment should be done through learning activities final exam should be conducted for a fair assessment A mentor should intervene as expert in discussion forums. Synchronous sessions should be organized for resolving doubts and contextualizing content A mentor should be constantly active and support my learning MOOC should use simple ICT tools that are accessible to all. I believe that advanced ICT tools will be more helpful for my learning. Should provide basic training before the course start on how to use LMS. 71 09 0 14 06 17 08 03 26 46 77 13 00 10 0 34 18 10 32 06 26 07 0 59 08 89 06 0 04 01 12 06 0 74 08 85 11 0 03 01 CONTENT ANALYSIS Content analysis is the process of summarizing and reporting written important content of any data (Onah, 2015). According to some authors (Flick, 1998; Mayring, 2004; Krippendorp, 2004), content analysis is a systematic procedure for the rigorous analysis, investigation and “verification of the contents of a written data”. They refer to it as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts” to the context of their usage. In conjunction with the quantitative analysis, MOOC learner expectations are studied through qualitative analysis. Accordingly, the learners’ descriptive answers and their reflective learning diaries were analyzed using content analysis methodology. The learners’ expectations were categorized into seven categories: 1. Flexibility; 2. Freedom; 3. User-friendly ICT integration; 4. Interactive course content; 5. Learner-centered pedagogy; 6. Continuous assessment; 7. Expert intervention and learning support. In the flexibility category, the analysis indicated that 68% of the respondents wished to learn at their own pace; 91% of the respondents believed that there should be no due date for any assignment and any learning activity; 59% of the respondents indicated that there should be no prerequisite for any course content exploration or learning activity; 20% of the respondents felt that there should be a facility to submit assignments in their local language; and 54% of the respondents believed there should be no insistence on spending five to six hours per week. In the freedom/openness category, the analysis indicated that 86% of the respondents wished to download study material so they could use it in offline mode; 91% of the respondents indicated that there should be no compulsion to complete all activities; 69% of the respondents indicated that there should be freedom to choose learning activities according to learners’ interest; and 84% of the respondents felt there should not be too much workload. 120 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 In the ICT integration category, the analysis indicated that 89% of the respondents believed MOOCs should use simple ICT tools that are accessible to all; 59% of the respondents expected basic training before the course as to how to use LMS and other ICT tools; and only 30% of respondents believed that advanced ICT tools would be more helpful for their learning. In the interactive course content category, the analysis indicated that 91% of the respondents expected downloadable interactive text handouts that could be easily read anytime, anywhere; 84% of the respondents expected interactive video tutorials, pictures, and infographics; 83% of the respondents expected handouts in small chunks; and 73% of respondents expected case studies, scenarios in text, and videos for a realistic experience. In the learner-centered pedagogy category, the analysis indicated that 90% of the respondents expected useful learning tasks to make learning experience-centered; 89% of the respondents expected a learner-centered collaborative learning design; 64% of the respondents expected learning activities that could practice skills in the actual field; and 62% of the respondents expected diversity in learning activities. In the continuous assessment category, the analysis indicated that 96% of the respondents expected practice quizzes to speed up and direct learning; 88% of the respondents expected field-based assignments for developmental assessment; 61% of the respondents expected assessment through learning activities; and 58% of the respondents expected a course end exam. Finally, in the expert intervention and learning support category, the analysis indicated that 70% of the respondents expected synchronous sessions for expert support; and 83% of the respondents expected mindful expert intervention by course mentors to solve doubts or to clarify misconceptions. RESULTS Based on the data analysis and interpretation, the following common expectations of MOOC learners of an MOOC were as follows: • • • • • • • • To gain new knowledge skills of school leadership and earn a course completion certificate was the initial motivation of the learners. MOOC learners expected more flexibility in the course structure. MOOC learners expected more freedom in the choice of what to learn, how to learn, and when to learn. MOOC learners expected the use of ICT tools in MOOCs should be simple and user-friendly. Also, learners expected pre-orientation to LMS and other ICT tools used in the course. MOOC learners expected interactive, engaging and scenario-based course content in small chunks. MOOC learners expected a learner-centered, experience-based collaborative learning design. MOOC learners expected continuous developmental assessment through quizzes, field-based assignments, learning activities, etcetera, instead of end-of-course exams or tests. MOOC learners expected mindful expert intervention by course mentors for doubt solving or clarification of misconception and learning motivation. Research Q 2: What factors affect learners’ learning engagement? Learner learning analytics One way to identify learners’ expectations, motivations and understand their learning engagement online is through learning analytics. De Liddo et al. (2011) analyzed a learner analytics dataset to shed light on individual or group learning patterns and learner activities in the course at different stages (Breslow et al., 2013) or learners’ ability to proceed to the end successfully or fail and drop out (Barber et al., 2012). According to Kizilcec et al. (2013), these learner analytics presented a method of classifying MOOC learners by grouping them into levels of engagement. 121 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Learners’ learning engagement has been assessed mainly through LMS statistics, like time spent on LMS; the number of posts or replays in discussion forums; number of submissions for assignments; number of peer assessments done by a learner; engagement in interactive content; and participation in synchronous discussion sessions. It is classified further into three levels: high (80% and above); 2. moderate (60–79%); and 3. low (below 60%). Table 3: Level of learners’ learning engagement with course content Factor Nature of content Interactive course content Experience centered learning activities Discussion, sharing and co-creation Assessment Text content with embedded quizzes/ reflective questions Video tutorials with embedded reflective spots/questions Interactive ppt presentations Puzzles, games Field based activities’ Scenario/ case-based discussion Reflective discussion with focused questions Sharing forums and walls Graded quizzes Practice quizzes Assignments Learner engagement level High Moderate Low 68% 19% 13% 29% 35% 36% 62% 93% 48% 24% 6% 50% 14% 1% 02% 62% 72% 59% 98% 88% 30% 23% 19% 14% 2% 06% 70% 15% 09% 27% 0% 06% 0% In this study, 68% of the learners were highly involved in embedded text content with quiz/reflective questions; 62% of the students were highly involved in interactive presentation; and 36% of the learners showed lower engagement in interactive tutorials. This means interactive text content and presentation is highly engaging in comparison to interactive video tutorials. Moreover, 93% of the learners were highly involved in puzzles and games, and 48% learners were highly involved in field-based activities. This means experience-centered micro-learning activities, such as puzzles and games, were highly engaging in comparison to field-based activities. Also, 72% of the learners were highly involved in reflective discussion with focused questions; 62% of the learners were highly involved in scenario/case-based discussion; 59% in sharing forums and walls; and only 45% of the learners showed moderate engagement in groupwork. Thus, reflective discussion with focused questions was highly engaging in comparison to groupwork. Finally, 98% of the learners were highly involved in graded quizzes; 88% of the learners were highly involved in practice quizzes; and only 70% of the learners showed moderate engagement in graded assignments. This means that reflective discussion with focused questions was highly engaging in comparison to group work. Table 4 shows the descriptive statistics at the level of learning engagement of students. According to this, 65% of the learners were highly engaged in learning and had completed 80–100% of their assigned learning activities; 24% of the learners were moderately engaged in learning, and 60–79% of assigned learning activities had been completed; and 11% of the learners were less engaged in learning and had completed below 60% of the assigned learning activities. Table 4: The percentage of overall learner engagement level in an MOOC 122 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Content analysis To gain a deeper understanding of learning engagement in this study, content analysis of learners’ reflective learning diaries was done. Content analysis revealed seven key factors that drove learners’ learning engagement in MOOCs: 1. Course content; 2. Pedagogy; 3. Expert intervention in the discussion forum and synchronous discussion sessions; 4. Freedom; 5. Flexibility; 6. Continuous formative assessment; and 7. Continuous communication and support by mentors. Level Learners % High 145 (65%) Moderate 54 (24%) Low 25 (11%) Results Through the descriptive analysis of LMS statistics, four course content-related factors were identified: Interactive course content • • • Experience centered micro-learning activities Scope for discussion, sharing and co-creation Use of graded and non-graded quizzes for continuous assessment And through content analysis of learners, reflective learning diaries and their descriptive feedback, three more factors were identified. Course structure and support-related factors were identified as: • • • Flexibility and freedom Use of ICT tools Continuous communication and support by course facilitators. Research Q 3: What is the level of learners’ learning satisfaction? To study the MOOC learner’s learning satisfaction, a post-course learner satisfaction survey was conducted. The various factors adopted in this study were taken from other research on MOOC satisfaction and retention (Kumar & Kumar, 2020). The scales were changed according to context of SLCB MOOC, and some more factors were brought to add to its relevancy (i.e., course structure, support system and learners’ learning engagement). The scale included 21 attributes on a five-point 123 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 scale, ranging from “Not at all satisfied” to “Completely satisfied” in various components related to SLCB MOOC. Table 5: The percentage of learners in respect of the level of their learning satisfaction Completely satisfied (Level 05) Satisfied (Level 04) Satisfied somewhat (Level 03) Not satisfied (Level 02) Not at all satisfied (Level 01) 183 (81.69%) 179 (79.91%) 41 (18.30%) 45 (20.08%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 169 (75.44%) 50 (22.32%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 176 (78.57%) 42 (18.75%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Scenarios and case studies 170 (75.89%) 52 (23.21%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Interactive video tutorials 169 (75.44%) 50 (22.32%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Practice learning activities 163 (72.76%) 56 (25%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Sharing and discussion Discussion forum 05 (2.23%) 06 (2.67%) 02 (0.89%) 05 (2.23%) 05 (2.23%) 163 (72.76%) 55 (24.55%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Sharing walls (Padlet) 169 (75.44%) 50 (22.32%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Pedagogy Course alignments Learner-centricity 06 (2.67%) 05 (2.23%) 183 (81.69%) 172 (76.78%) 41 (18.30%) 50 (22.32) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Game based interactive learning activities Assessment and grading Practice quizzes 188 (83.92%) 32 (14.28%) 0 (0%) 02 (0.89%) 02 (0.89%) 02 (0.89%) 0 (0%) 190 (84.82%) 29 (12.94%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Graded final quizzes 163 (72.76%) 55 (24.55%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Graded final assignments 145 (64.73%) 65 (29.01%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Instructor intervention and feedback Synchronous sessions 02 (0.89%) 06 (2.67%) 14 (6.25%) 170 (75.89%) 47 (20.98%) 02 (0.89%) 0 (0%) Clarifying doubts 188 (83.92%) 32 (14.28%) 02 (0.89%) 0 (0%) Feedback 181 (80.80%) 38 (16.96%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Technical support 181 (80.80%) 39 (17.41%) 05 (2.23%) 02 (0.89%) 05 (2.23%) 04 (1.78%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 190 (84.82%) 26 (11.60%) 3 (1.33%) 0 (0%) 145 (64.73%) 60 (26.78%) 02 (0.89%) 14 5 (2.23%) 0 (0%) Components of MOOC Course structure Flexibility Freedom/openness Course content Quality of text resources (Self-learning Handbooks) Quality of video tutorials Use of ICT LMS/ICT orientation module Integration of ICT tools 124 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Overall satisfaction level 179 (79.91%) 43 (19.19%) (6.25%) 02 (0.89%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Results • • • • • • • • Overall, 80% of the learners were completely satisfied; 19% of the learners were satisfied; 1% were somewhat satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied with SLCB MOOC. As regards course structure, 81% of the learners were completely satisfied; 19% of the learners were satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied. Concerning course content, 75% of the learners were completely satisfied; 25% of the learners were satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied. Regarding sharing and discussion activities, 74% of the learners were completely satisfied; 23% of the learners were satisfied; 3% of the learners were somewhat satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied. With regard to course pedagogy, 81% of the learners were completely satisfied; 18% of the learners were satisfied; 1% of the learners were somewhat satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied. As regards assessment and grading, 75% of the learners were completely satisfied; 22% of the learners were satisfied; 3% of the learners were somewhat satisfied; and no one was dissatisfied. Regarding instructor intervention and feedback, 80% of the learners were completely satisfied; 17% of the learners were satisfied; 2% of the learners were somewhat satisfied; 1% of the learners were not satisfied; and no one was completely dissatisfied. Lastly, 76% of the learners were completely satisfied; 19% of the learners were satisfied; 3% of the learners were somewhat satisfied; 2% of the learners were not satisfied; and no one was completely dissatisfied with course use of ICT in course. Research Q 4: Is there any relation between learners’ learning engagement and their satisfaction? To answer this question, data were analyzed with descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient. The researcher investigated the relationships between learning engagement and learning satisfaction using the correlation coefficient (r). Table 6: Correlation between learners’ learning engagement and their learning satisfaction Variables Level of learning engagement Level of learner satisfaction N 224 224 M 4.06 4.71 SD 1.37 0.47 Correlation coefficient r = 0.75 (r = 0.434117, ρ < .01) Result The r-value was r = 0.75, ρ < .01 – so, it was found that correlations between learning engagement and learning satisfaction were significant and substantially strong. DISCUSSION The dropout rate in MOOCs is high due to several reasons, of which one is the MOOC itself. Often, MOOCs look like digital versions of existing distance learning material and practices. They do not consider the different expectations of learners, different learning styles, differences in their personal professional contexts, and differences in the digital learning environment. This study found that 125 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 MOOC learners expect more autonomy and flexibility regarding what to learn, how to learn, and when to learn. They expect the learning to be easy, with hassle-free, user-friendly technology. As per the expectation of the learners, if there is enough choice in the learning activities and materials, it would fulfill their interests and needs and would make learning meaningful. Moreover, MOOC learners expect interactive, engaging and scenario-based course content in small chunks, along with joyful micro-learning activities. Such content and learning activities and developmental assessment strategies increase their learning engagement and facilitate their learning. Regarding MOOCs, we must develop a learner-centered, experience-based collaborative learning design to make learners satisfied with learning. Also, for doubt solving or clarification of misconceptions and learning motivation, mindful expert intervention by course mentors is useful to sustain learners in the course. This study supports previous research that has identified the central role of interactive curriculum content in students’ learning engagements and their satisfaction. CONCLUSION This study examined learners’ expectations and factors that influence their learning engagement and their satisfaction with MOOCs. After the data analysis and interpretations, the following conclusions were drawn: • MOOC learners expect more flexibility and freedom in course structure, content, pedagogy and assessment. • MOOC learners expect that the use of ICT tools in MOOCs should be simple and userfriendly. Also, learners expect pre-orientation to LMSs and other ICT tools used in the course. • Also, they expect scope for connectedness through discussion, sharing with fellow learners and course mentors or facilitators. • MOOC learners expect engaging, interactive course content in small chunks. • MOOC learners expect a learner-centered, experience-based collaborative learning design. • This study also found that learners’ learning engagement can be increased through joyful, interactive course content and learning activities. • Learners’ learning engagement and their learning satisfaction are positively correlated with one another. This study supports the central role of interactive course content in learners’ learning engagement and their satisfaction. RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations are made: • • • • • • Every MOOC developer should keep in mind learner expectations as MOOC design principles at the designing and deployment stages. MOOCs should maintain flexibility, freedom and learner centricity in their structure, content, pedagogy, assessment and alignment through sufficient learning choice for learners, minimal restrictions and prerequisites, formal and non-formal discussion forums, and collaborative learning opportunities. The use of ICT tools in MOOCs should be simple and user-friendly. Every MOOC should offer technical support through LMS and ICT orientation modules as pre-course activities. This study also suggests that providing more engaging and interactive course content can increase learning engagement and the overall satisfaction of learners. MOOCs should provide mindful expert intervention by course mentors for doubt solving or clarification of misconceptions and learning motivation. 126 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 • MOOCs should use continuous developmental assessment through quizzes, field-based assignments, learning activities, peer assessment, et cetera, instead of end-of-course exams or tests. Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to the UNESCO-UNEVOC, Boon Germany, for their financial support under the first UNESCO-UNEVOC OER grant programme 2020. REFERENCES Dousay, T. (2015). Teaching in a digital age. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 16(4), 99. Flick, U. (1998). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage. Jeremy Knox (2014) Digital culture clash: “massive” education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC, Distance Education, 35:2, 164-177, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2014.917704 Krippendorp, K. (2004). Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Sage. Kumar, P., & Kumar, N. (2020). A study of learner’s satisfaction from MOOCs through a mediation model. Procedia Computer Science, 173(July), 354–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.06.041 M. Liu, J. Kang & E. McKelroy (2015) Examining learners’ perspective of taking a MOOC: reasons, excitement, and perception of usefulness, Educational Media International, 52:2, 129146, DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2015.1053289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2015.1053289 Macleod, H., Haywood, J., Woodgate, A., & Alkhatnai, M. (2014). Emerging patterns in MOOC's: Learners, course designs and directions. Tech Trends, 56-63. McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G., & Cormier, D. (2010). The MOOC model for digital practice. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/MOOC_Final.pdf Onah, D. F. O. (2015). Learners expectations and motivations using content analysis in a MOOC. Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2015, 2015(June), 192–201. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/151425 Pande, J., & Mythili, G. (2021). Investigating student satisfaction with online courses: a case study of Uttarakhand open university. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 17(3), 12–28. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJICTE.20210701.oa2 Rob Firmin, Eva Schiorring, John Whitmer, Terrence Willett, Elaine D. Collins & Sutee Sujitparapitaya (2014) Case study: using MOOCs for conventional college coursework, Distance Education, 35:2, 178-201, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2014.917707 UGC. (2020). Blended mode of teaching and learning: concept note 127 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 FLIPPED-CLASSROOM APPROACH IN THE DIGITAL POSTCOVID-19 ERA: AN EFL BLENDED LEARNING SCENARIO THAT PROMOTES HEALTHY EATING HABITS Athanasia Kakali Junior High School of Dionysos, Attica, Athens, Greece (prima25vera@yahoo.gr) Abstract The COVID-19 crisis has had a substantial effect on teenagers’ dietary profiles, since adolescents are prone to acquiring unhealthy eating habits that can further lead to diseases, such as obesity and diabetes (Ruiz-Roso et al., 2020). The main objective of this study is to address this problem through formal education in an EFL context. The flipped-classroom approach is proposed with the aim to promote healthy eating habits in the post-COVID era. First, the key concept of flipped classroom is elucidated. The study builds on previous research, published in relevant conferences and journals, on the flipped-classroom approach and its impact. The next part of the study focuses on a blendedlearning scenario that favors a flipped classroom and is developed to satisfy students’ needs. This scenario fosters 21st-century skills (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity) by exploiting technology and a wide range of Web 2.0 tools. It consists of three phases. Initially, students access new knowledge while studying nutrition vocabulary in an asynchronous mode (Phase I). Then they deal synchronously with tasks that provide practice and consolidation of the new knowledge (Phase II). Not only do they reflect on teenagers’ eating disorders, giving advice, but they work in teams to create healthy menus according to the needs of certain teenagers. The scenario culminates asynchronously (Phase III). In the last phase, students undertake tasks and writing assignments to apply the newly acquired knowledge. They come up with their own ideal healthy menu and then evaluate the whole learning process. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting that teachers should move beyond traditional teaching practices, integrating the flipped-classroom approach into the EFL classroom to adapt to the needs of the constantly changing 21st century and reap rewards. INTRODUCTION Technological advances have an impact on teaching, since they bring about new methodological approaches that revolutionize traditional instruction (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Teaching delivery modes now range from face-to-face to virtual and blended ones. Teaching has been traditionally delivered through the face-to-face mode, whereas the virtual classroom environment is a totally opposite medium of delivery. Blended teaching is the approach that combines both modes of delivery – face to face and virtual (Slomanson, 2014). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, secondary school teachers in Greece used to have all their classes face to face and hardly ever delivered lessons in a blended mode. During the pandemic, teachers across Europe undertook the hard task of using distance learning to provide support to teenagers who underwent difficulties and had to deal with the management of their own learning and cope with feelings of anxiety in the COVID-19 environment (Katić et al., 2021). The teacher decided to integrate a pedagogical approach of blended learning in her EFL teaching practices based on the encouraging results of relevant research worldwide. In more concrete terms, a considerable number of empirical studies revealed that learners’ performance in online teaching environments can outweigh the performance of peers who are taught face to face only (Means et al., 2010). Besides, the teacher sought to motivate learners through innovation. The need for teaching English in an innovative way by exploiting Web 2.0 tools and integrating a flipped classroom is a 21st-century demand (Anwar, 2020). 128 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 In addition, the teacher used the particular scenario as a means of intervention, supporting teenagers and promoting healthy eating patterns. Relevant studies conducted in Europe during school closure reported a correlation between psychiatric disorders, such as increased anxiety levels and social isolation (Katić et al., 2021). Adolescents’ dietary profiles have been influenced by confinement due to the pandemic. Teenagers are prone to acquiring poor eating habits, especially after the outbreak of the pandemic, which caused tremendous changes in everyday practices (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Adolescence is a crucial stage in one’s life, as it signifies the transition from childhood to adulthood (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Healthy eating is crucial and protects against the acquisition of several diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular concerns (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Confinement is associated with less physical activity and changes in daily life and eating routines (Gómez-García et al., 2020). In the post-COVID era, adolescents still experience the consequences of the confinement and live under the anxiety of a new outbreak of the pandemic. Consequently, the teacher is implementing the current scenario to promote healthy eating habits among adolescents and prevent eating disorders deriving from increased levels of stress in the post-COVID-19 era. LITERATURE REVIEW Flipped-classroom approach The flipped classroom – also called the inverted classroom – has been very popular recently in both K-12 and higher education (Milman, 2014). The flipped-classroom approach is an innovative model of teaching that has been exploited extensively recently (Sohrabi & Iraj, 2016). It is widely recognized as one of the most effective approaches within the EFL educational community (Al-Naabi, 2020). It is a type of blended learning instruction where learners acquire new knowledge online through videorecorded lessons (Milman, 2014; Nwosisi et al., 2016). Traditionally, learners are expected to study and do their homework at home (Nwosisi et al., 2016). In this method, there is a shift in the implementation mode regarding teaching in various phases. Traditional class time activities, such as presentation of new knowledge, are implemented at home, whereas homework and projects are completed during class time (Nwosisi et al., 2016; Sohrabi & Iraj, 2016). Thus, in the flipped classroom, teacher time is allocated in a different way. Students do not struggle at home to get work done by themselves (Nwosisi et al., 2016). Teachers devote classroom time, offering help to learners who need it to complete tasks successfully (Nwosisi et al., 2016). This instructional strategy also involves formative and summative assessment activities (Milman, 2014). This approach gained popularity, as it promotes student-centered learning. That is, in the flipped classroom, there is a shift of focus from educators to learners who become responsible for their own learning (Sohrabi & Iraj, 2016). Teachers act mainly as facilitators of the learning process rather than instructors of the traditional teaching environment (Sohrabi & Iraj, 2016; Anwar, 2020). Therefore, learning is regarded as part of a constructive process, where learners take steps to construct their knowledge (Sohrabi & Iraj, 2016). Therefore, the flipped-classroom approach is not merely a lecture delivered online (Slomanson, 2014). Students become responsible for their own learning in a student-centered environment. That is, they can have access to additional teaching material, or they may use differentiated educational technologies compared to the ones chosen by the teacher; they can ignore some elements provided by the educator and take benefit by combining activities in a unique, individualized way (Ritella & Loperfido, 2021). Technology tools provide additional resources that explain students’ tasks step by step, or offer solutions to common problems that arise in a particular learning context (Nwosisi et al., 2016). Instructors may exploit advanced learning management systems (LMSs), such as Moodle and Blackboard, to aid learners to interact with each other before the class about the content of the videos uploaded by the teacher (Al-Naabi, 2020). Regarding the use of the flipped classroom, this approach can be employed by instructors to introduce a new topic and for remedial instruction as well (Nwosisi et al., 2016). Even though the flipped classroom supports procedural knowledge the best, the other three types of knowledge according to 129 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Bloom’s taxonomy – that is, factual, conceptual, and metacognitive – can also be taught utilizing this approach (Milman, 2014). Although the flipped classroom has been mainly used in physical sciences, it recently attracted the attention of educators from all disciplines (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). Nutritional education is one field in which the flipped-classroom approach can be successfully implemented. Bearing in mind that the flipped classroom promotes learner autonomy, this teaching method can be considered appropriate for addressing effectively nutritional habits of teenagers in the post-COVID-19 era. That is, the promotion of learner autonomy through a flipped classroom can help learners understand better the importance of a balanced diet and become more responsible towards their own eating routines, which may lead to a healthy lifestyle (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Thus, teenagers can benefit in this regard and avoid the bad eating habits acquired during the quarantine. As a result, nutritional education can confront teenagers’ risk of obesity, sedentarism and eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and compulsive eating. The effectiveness of the flippedclassroom approach in nutritional education has been confirmed by several relevant studies (GómezGarcía et al., 2020). In general, nutritional education should be incorporated into the curriculum through technology so that learners receive knowledge that can be applied in their everyday lives in an attractive and dynamic way (Gómez-García et al., 2020). Even when a flipped classroom is partly employed in classroom practices, the educational profit can be considerable. A study on college students revealed that flipping the content of a course for 30% can aid learners, since it facilitates student-to-student as well as student-to-teacher interaction. Thus, this approach is considered effective, since it yields better learning results (Nwosisi et al., 2016). Another study on EFL learners showed that learners were able to understand and use English grammar more effectively (Al-Naabi, 2020), whereas a study on Saudi Arabian EFL students indicated improvement in the skill of speaking (Al-Ghamdi & Al-Bargi, 2017). Similarly, a study on Indonesian EFL learners classified benefits of using a flipped classroom into three main categories: providing flexibility; encouraging discussions among students; and enhancing learner readiness (Lestari & Sunadri, 2021). According to recent research, a flipped classroom also yields satisfactory learning outcomes in remote instruction (Heiss & Oxley, 2021). Despite the positive impact of the flipped-classroom approach, negative aspects can also arise. First, learners may lack motivation in the beginning and come to lessons unprepared (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). Moreover, some teachers may be discouraged from using flipped-classroom approaches, since content creation required in blended learning can be a time-consuming process (Heiss & Oxley, 2021). Creating and integrating class activities in the flipped-classroom approach can also be difficult (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). However, material can be prepared by several instructors and once prepared, it can be shared and used by all instructors, making preparation for future delivery of flipped classes less time-consuming (Heiss & Oxley, 2021). A last negative aspect that must be taken into consideration is related to technology. Access to technology equipment can be a problem among remote-area students or those from a low-income background (Anwar, 2020). Twenty-first-century skills It is imperative for the educators to use innovative strategies and modern learning technologies to infuse cognitive and social skills in the acquisition of knowledge and reinforce student participation (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). Incorporating 21st-century skills in schools requires meticulous planning (Erdem, 2019). Teachers, through their work, form part of this planning. In this sense, they take up the important role of aiding students to develop 21st-century skills through practices that empower students and strengthen their abilities (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). Problem-based learning is an educational approach that boosts both knowledge acquisition and growth of 21st-century skills that bring students in contact with real life (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). In this approach, students raise their concerns and discuss subjects related to the real world. Moreover, when students are asked to find a proper solution, they deal with problems by investigating, providing 130 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 explanations, coming up with ideas, analyzing data, and making evaluations. At the same time, students enhance their participation in class and exercise critical thinking using higher-order thinking patterns to solve problems. Lastly, through critical thinking, students learn to overcome thinking obstacles and obtain 21st-century skills (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). Another core element of 21st-century skills is co-operative learning. According to this approach, students are divided into different teams that vary in interests and capabilities. Co-operation makes students more creative, since all student skills and talents are combined in a single team with the objective to reach the desirable goal. Consequently, co-operation enhances student motivation. Cooperative learning is encouraged through projects, problem-solving situations and tasks based in inquiry learning (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). Finally, technology plays a significant role in 21st-century skills development. First, it supports problem-solving, critical thinking and co-operative learning and strengthens student motivation. WebQuests, Wikis, Google sites, digital storytelling, blogs, and e-portfolios are some indicative technological tools. Furthermore, multimedia tools broaden deeper understanding and promote higher-order thinking skills that lead to successful activity completion. Technology helps students come closer to information and knowledge in an autonomous way. Moreover, technology facilitates co-operation, dissemination of information, organization of ideas through projects, or internet research. Thus, technology can prepare learners to learn how to collect information deriving from a wide range of internet resources (Alismail & McGuire, 2015). LEARNING SCENARIO The current learning scenario focuses on teenagers and was created to help them cope with a common problem they shared – the changes that the COVID-19 crisis brought about in their lives and nutritional habits. Indisputably, adolescents’ dietary routines changed during the pandemic; the acquisition of new eating habits with higher sugar consumption due to anxiety and boredom caused by confinement can lead to health issues in the near future (Ruiz-Roso et al., 2020). Thus, the current scenario sought to act as an intervention to motivate students curb unhealthy eating habits. Recent studies proved valuable to learning that is supported with meaningful activities developed on purpose, such as scenarios focusing on everyday life (Semilarski et al., 2021). Target group profile This learning scenario is addressed to all teenagers globally who, due to the COVID-19 crisis, have acquired unhealthy eating habits. Currently, it is being implemented and presented to 60 Greek students at the Junior High School of Dionysos in the northern suburbs of Athens. Most students have a good socio-economic background. The scenario is implemented through blended learning via synchronous and asynchronous teaching sessions that favor the flipped-classroom approach. The scenario is interdisciplinary and combines the teaching of English, ICT and Home Economics. According to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, learners are expected to be independent users of English Threshold B1 level (Council of Europe, 2001). ICT competence and prior use of Web 2.0 tools are also prerequisites for a better learning experience. Digital literacies are also important on the part of the teacher who undertakes the scenario’s implementation. Moreover, students must have some prior experience in blended learning scenarios. Otherwise, the teacher should devote some time to initiate students into similar activities. The scenario covers approximately 90 minutes of teaching and consists of three phases: • • • Phase I: Non-synchronous: Students access new knowledge and study (20΄) Phase II: Synchronous: New knowledge consolidation activities (40΄) Phase III: Non-synchronous: Acquired knowledge application and evaluation stage (30΄). 131 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Aim Teenagers are guided to understand and value the importance of following a healthy diet. As a result, they are expected to acquire a healthy lifestyle that can prevent diseases related to bad nutrition, such as diabetes and obesity. At the same time, the scenario aspires to change in a significant positive way learners’ perceptions of self-efficacy towards 21st-century skills. More specifically, by the end of the learning scenario students are expected to: • • • • • • cope with post-COVID-19 feelings of anxiety that can lead to eating disorders; acquire knowledge related to nutrition (healthy diet, junk food, etc.); distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food; provide advice on a healthy diet; design a healthy diet menu; practice 21st-century skills, namely creativity, critical thinking, co-operation, and new literacies. Phase I The first part of the scenario (20΄) is delivered asynchronously. The teacher chooses to use the learning management system (LMS) of open e-class, because it is an open-source software that is distributed for free. The teacher devotes approximately 1–2 hours to organize the lesson in the open e-class. They exploit the glossary tool to introduce vocabulary related to the thematic field of nutrition and eating disorders. They upload a text about Teen Eating Disorders and the link of a short video about Teens’ Nutrition and create an exercise to check comprehension. Lastly, the teacher activates the forum tool where students are asked to upload vocabulary related to nutrition, the thematic core of the scenario. The teacher uses the tool announcements to inform students about the learning goals and the lesson content and to explain the learning steps students must take before the synchronous meeting of Phase II. To cater for all learning styles, the teacher uses the Screencast-o-Matic Web 2.0 screen recorder tool to create a short video with the learning goals and the lesson content. They record their voice on relevant PowerPoint slides. Learners appreciate listening to their teacher’s voice and develop a sense of closeness and greater intimacy to each other despite the lesson’s distance feature. Later, the teacher uploads the video in the open e-class using the multimedia tool. Learners visit Open e-Class, read the announcement and follow the guidelines. First, they study the glossary on the thematic field of nutrition (5΄). Then, they read the relevant text, watch the video and complete the closed-type activity (multiple choice, true–false, matching) (10΄). After completing the task, students receive immediate feedback of their progress and use the forum tool to upload new vocabulary (5΄). Phase II The second part of the scenario takes place synchronously using the web-conferencing tool of Webex. The teacher welcomes students in the synchronous lesson. The teacher presents the lesson’s goals, making a connection between the asynchronous Phase I and the current one. The tool known as Polling of Webex is used to check vocabulary comprehension and prepare learners for the activities to follow. Students answer the Polling questions and submit their answers. The teacher provides feedback based on students’ answers. After the Polling activity, the teacher initiates students in a skimming and scanning activity by sharing a new text and asks them to use the annotate tool to mark the answer on the following questions that are delivered orally: • • • • How important is nutrition? What is a balanced diet? Which What are the common types of eating disorders? Which What is the best advice for having a healthy diet? 132 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Then, the teacher presents the profiles and nutritional habits of five teenagers and asks students to use the chat to report any possible eating disorders accompanied by a piece of advice to the teenager regarding their eating habits. The next activity is a collaborative one and focuses on teenagers’ healthy diet. The teacher uses the breakout session tool and divides students randomly into teams of four to five. Then, the teacher exploits the broadcast message tool and sends a different teenager’s profile to each team, asking them to prepare a healthy menu that caters for the needs of the particular teenager. The teacher acts as a facilitator of the learning process. They enter all team rooms one by one to make sure everything is on the right track. They offer their support when asked. Students collaborate with each other and keep notes to come up with the proper healthy diet suitable for the teenager’s profile they have been given. They take up different roles and decide on the person who will undertake the task to present the menu in the plenary. Presentation takes place, and the rest of the teams use chat to comment, make additions or express disagreement with something (peer feedback). The teacher also provides feedback. Phase III Phase III is delivered asynchronously (30΄). Learning takes place through new knowledge consolidation and application, reflection and assessment. The teacher exploits open class tool exercises to create a short activity of summative assessment that students access and submit within the predefined time limits. Alternatively, the teacher can use the ready-made activities of Web 2.0 tools Quizizz and Liveworksheets for formative assessment. Then, the teacher uses the tool assignment to ask students to hand in an assignment. They must describe the ideal healthy diet that caters to their own profiles, justifying their answers. Students upload their assignments, and the teacher provides feedback. Last, the students consider the teacher’s feedback, make the last modifications in their assignments, and keep them in their portfolios in either a digital or print-out form. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER SUGGESTIONS Undoubtedly, traditional instruction is not enough to keep learners stimulated and meet the instructional demands of the post-COVID-19 era. Therefore, teaching should be adapted to the needs of the 21st century. Flipped classroom is an approach that promotes all 21st-century skills – that is, creativity, critical thinking, communication, and technology. Considering all of the above, teachers should move beyond conventional instruction and integrate the flipped classroom into their teaching practices to help learners benefit and cope with the anxiety caused by the pandemic. Flipped-classroom integration into the curriculum can yield promising results and be challenging for teachers worldwide. For the effective incorporation of flipped learning, teachers must be digitally competent. Teachers’ technological competence is a prerequisite for the efficient integration of flipped classroom into the curriculum (Al-Ghamdi & Al-Bargi, 2017). Recent research claims that teachers who are highly motivated to use technology in their instructional practices tend to exploit the flipped classroom approach widely (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). Moreover, teachers who employ flipped classroom in their teaching practices must acquire special skills in designing materials (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). Recently, there has been an increase in flipped-classroom approach research (Ozdamli & Aşıksoy, 2016). Future research can go even further and investigate the correlation between learners’ level of linguistic competence, age and gender and the flipped-classroom approach (Al-Naabi, 2020). REFERENCES Al-Ghamdi, M., & Al-Bargi, A. (2017). Exploring the application of flipped classrooms on EFL Saudi students' speaking skill. International Journal of Linguistics, 9(4), 28–46. 133 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Alismail, H.A., & McGuire, P. (2015). 21st century standards and curriculum: Current research and practice. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(6), 150–154. Al-Naabi, I.S. (2020). Is it worth flipping? The impact of flipped classroom on EFL students' grammar. English Language Teaching, 13(6), 144–155. Anwar, Ch. (2020). Flipped Classroom and Digital Literacy in EFL Learning. In N.F. Sudaryanto & O. Zefki (Eds.) Bulir-bulir kajian linguistik terapan (pp.11–23). Indonesia,Yogyakarta: CV MARKUMI. Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: CUP. Erdem, C. (2019). Introduction to 21st century skills and education. In C. Erdem, H. Bağcı & M. Koçyiğit (Eds.) 21st century skills and education (pp. 1–14). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Gómez-García, G., Marín-Marín, J. A., Romero-Rodríguez, J.-M., Ramos Navas-Parejo, M., & Rodríguez Jiménez, C. (2020). Effect of the flipped classroom and gamification methods in the development of a didactic unit on healthy habits and diet in primary education. Nutrients, 12(8), 2210. Heiss, E.M, & Oxley, S.P. (2021). Implementing a flipped classroom approach in remote instruction. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 413(5), 1245–1250. Kakali, A. (2021). To eat or not to eat healthy! Retrieved December 5, 2021, from https://demo.openeclass.org/courses/DEMO-A1977/ Katić, S., Ferraro, F. V., Ambra, F. I., & Iavarone, M. L. (2021). Distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison between European countries. Education Sciences, 11(10), 595. Lestari, I.W., & Sundari, A. (2021). Indonesian EFL students’ experiences in a flipped classroom. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Innovation 2020 – Social, Humanity and Education (ICoSIHESS 2020). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 51, 219–223. Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2010). Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. U.S. Department of Education: Washington, D.C. Milman, N.B. (2014) The flipped classroom strategy: What is it and how can it best be used? Distance Learning, 11(4), 9–11. Nwosisi, Ch., Ferreira, A., Rosenberg, W., & Walsh, K. (2016). A study of the flipped classroom and its effectiveness in flipping thirty percent of the course content. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 6(5), 348–351. Ozdamli, F., & Aşıksoy, G. (2016). Flipped classroom approach. World Journal on Educational Technology, 8(2), 98–105. Ritella, G., & Loperfido, F. F. (2021). Students’ self-organization of the learning environment during a blended knowledge creation course. Education Sciences, 11(10), 580. Ruiz-Roso, M. B., de Carvalho Padilha, P., Mantilla-Escalante, D. C., Ulloa, N., Brun, P., AcevedoCorrea, D., Arantes Ferreira Peres, W., et al. (2020). Covid-19 Confinement and changes of adolescent’s dietary trends in Italy, Spain, Chile, Colombia and Brazil. Nutrients, 12(6), 1807. Semilarski, H., Soobard, R., & Rannikmäe, M. (2021). Promoting students’ perceived self-efficacy towards 21st Century Skills through everyday life-related scenarios. Education Sciences, 11(10), 570. Slomanson, W.R. (2014). Blended learning: A flipped classroom experiment. Journal of Legal Education. 64(1), 93–102. Sohrabi, B., & Iraj, H. (2016). Implementing flipped classroom using digital media: A comparison of two demographically different groups perceptions. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 514–524. 134 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ONLINE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND TEACHING PRESENCE Vusi Maseko South West Gauteng College (masekovj@swgc.co.za) Abstract COVID-19 shut down most schools and colleges globally, but collaboration among educators persisted. Whilst COVID protocols ruled out physical meetings among teachers, collaboration has gone online. The objective of this research was to offer a comprehensive yet concise assessment of the link between teaching presence (TP) and online professional learning communities (OPLCs). The survey used in this study was based on a four-point Likert scale, and respondents were asked to pick one option that best matched their point of view. This study also used factor analysis, correlations, regressions and structured equation modelling (SEM) to establish the relationship between TP and OPLCs. There were 112 respondents from diverse countries of origin. There is a strong correlation between TP and OPLCs; in fact, TP significantly predicted OPLCs. SEM was used to test and evaluate multivariate causal relationships. More respondents were required to fully establish the full extent of the relationship between TP and OPLCs. Educator innovations have implications for everyday practice. Comprehending the multidimensional relationship would assist educators to ensure that teaching and learning continue even in COVID times. Furthermore, decisions that affected working arrangements taken by management modulated the respondents’ perceptions. These results suggest that teaching presence is one of the most important factors in building community for online learning to occur. INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic forced all Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges in South Africa to close abruptly. Owing to COVID-19’s disruptive nature, educators could not meet and discuss students’ educational challenges. Implementing the social distancing protocols forced educators to stop large group teaching and even halted peer collaborations, resulting in lecturers losing hundreds of collaborative learning hours. Continuing professional development (CPD) for educators through professional learning communities (PLCs) is a well-researched and wellestablished technique that transforms much-needed training (Brown et al., 2018). PLCs support continuous, job-embedded learning by bringing together a group of lecturers who often interact to ensure continued school success (Brown et al., 2018). The PLC group gathers (Brown, Horn, & King) to share and critically analyse their practices and learn new and more effective techniques to improve learning and networking with other educators. However, COVID-19 stopped all collaborative activity despite it being an excellent collaborative period. Because of COVID-19, educators and students must start learning in a new normal. Educators should start using online professional learning communities (OPLCs) to transform learning from brick and mortar to clicks using OPLCs. The role of the teacher in an online learning context is to create an effective online educational community that involves three critical components: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence (Garrison et al., 2000). This study focused on teaching presence. The term “teaching presence” refers to the effort made to teach both before and during the course. It encompasses all aspects of course design and preparation, as well as hands-on instruction in leading and assisting learners during the course’s delivery. The presence of the instructor is evident in the course materials, which include the syllabus, assignments, readings and conversations. One’s teaching presence is 135 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 shown via all one does to lead, encourage and influence one’s students’ learning experiences. A teaching presence creates clear expectations and provides beneficial guidance. The professional learning community (PLC) has been considered as a strong professional development strategy and a potent instrument for school reform and continual improvement. The notion of continual improvement is a crucial principle held by members of a PLC. When one uses information communication technologies to host a PLC online, it becomes an online PLC (OPLC). The OPLC broadens knowledge by using computer-mediated communication and global resources. This kind of community also allows individuals to make, acquire and engage with knowledge and ideas provided by others in ways that are appropriate for their needs. As a result, we can define OPLCs as a group of autonomous, independent individuals who are drawn together by shared values, goals and collaboration using the Internet as a medium. OPLCs are also based on Hord’s (1997) PLC model with the following: (1) a shared mission, vision, values, goals (SM); (2) collaborative teams focused on learning (CT); (3) collective inquiry (CI); (4) action oriented (AO); (5) commitment to continuous improvement (CC); and (6) results orientation (RO). METHODOLOGY For this study, an e-survey was used to ascertain respondents’ opinions by eliciting their level of agreement or disagreement with a specific issue or statement. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for gender, qualification, status, country, age range, work location, designation, race, working arrangements, and hierarchical level. Summary statistics were calculated for the six components of the OPLC to confirm the existence of a PLC. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted among innovation in teaching and learning (ITL), professional learning communities (PLC) and teaching presence (TP). Cohen’s standard was used to measure the strength of the relationships, where coefficients between .10 and .29 reveal a little impact size, coefficients between .30 and .49 represent a moderate effect size, and coefficients over .50 imply a large effect size (Cohen, 1988). Next, a linear regression analysis was done to see whether TP and ITL significantly predicted PLC. Finally, an SEM model was conducted to evaluate whether the latent variables (OPLC, TP, and ITL) adequately describe the data. Maximum likelihood estimate was done to determine the standard errors for the parameter estimations. RESULTS Bar plot of gender: Figure 1: Gender 136 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The most frequently observed category of gender was female (n = 64.57%). Most respondents had a post-matric qualification (n = 58.52%) and were employed (n = 86.77%). The vast majority of the respondents were based in South Africa (n = 74.66%). The millennials age range (26–44) (n = 51.46%) had the highest number of respondents. Most respondents were college-based (n = 63.56%), of whom lecturers were in the majority (n = 40.36%). The sample had more people of African descent (n = 64.57%). Working arrangements at most workplaces were on a rotational basis (n = 44.39%). They were mostly frontline workers like lecturers or class teachers (n = 51.46%). Respondents with a post-matric qualification (n = 58.52%) were in the majority of the sample. Table 1: OPLC summary statistics table for interval and ratio variables M SD n SEM Min Max Skewness Kurtosis SM 2.87 0.72 112 0.07 1.00 4.00 -0.32 -0.39 CT 2.87 0.76 112 0.07 1.00 4.00 -0.35 -0.50 CI 2.91 0.67 112 0.06 1.00 4.00 -0.50 -0.10 AO 3.12 0.74 112 0.07 1.00 4.00 -0.86 0.45 CC 3.00 0.75 112 0.07 1.00 4.00 -0.68 0.02 RO 3.07 0.73 112 0.07 1.00 4.00 -0.74 0.32 Variable Note. ‘-’ indicates the statistic is undefined due to constant data or an insufficient sample size. Assigning Likert scale values to Dufour’s Professional Learning Community Continuum Rubric (2008) yielded table 2. Table 2: PLC Continuum Developmental Stage Mean SM CT CI AO CC RO Average Pre-initiation 1.01 – 1.99 Initiation 2.00 – 2.49 2,973 Developing 2.50 – 2.99 2.87 2.87 2.91 Sustaining 3.00 – 3.99 3.12 3.00 3.07 An SM value of 2.87 indicates that teachers were aware of the learning outcomes expected of their students. They developed strategies to evaluate student mastery of these outcomes, monitor the results and attempt to intervene with non-learners. A CT value of 2.87 is indicative of the fact that periodically, teachers met in work groups to complete tasks such as reviewing intended outcomes and coordinating calendars. Furthermore, having a CI value of 2.91 means that individual teachers and teaching teams collected data that enabled the identification and monitoring of individual and team objectives. An AO mean of 3.12 implies that action research topics were derived from the school’s shared vision and objectives. Staff members viewed action research as an integral part of their professional obligations. Furthermore, as educators attempted to learn from the research of their colleagues, there were frequent discussions regarding the implications of the findings. The CC mean of 3.00 shows that all educators in the school participated in a continuous cycle of systematic data collection and analysis to identify gaps between actual and desired results, goal setting to reduce the gaps, strategy development to achieve the goals, and monitoring of improvement indicators. A mean 137 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 of RO above 3.00 implies that the teams of educators were hungry for results data. They collected pertinent data and used the data to identify improvement goals and track progress towards those goals. Based on the proceeding, we can therefore conclude that a critical mass of educators supported OPLCs. To implement OPLCs, educators are beginning to modify their thinking and behaviour. To align with OPLCs, structural adjustments are being made. The outcome of the correlations was assessed using the Holm correction to compensate for multiple comparison tests depending on an alpha value of 0.05. A significant positive correlation was discovered between IT and PLC (r = 0.72, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.61, 0.80]). The correlation value between IT and PLC was 0.72, suggesting a large impact size. This correlation implies that as IT increased, PLC tended to increase. A significant positive correlation was established between IT and TP (r = 0.58, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.44, 0.69]). The correlation coefficient between IT and TP was 0.58, also indicating a large effect size. Accordingly, this correlation indicates that as IT increases, TP tends to increase. A significant positive correlation was observed between PLC and TP (r = 0.75, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.66, 0.82]). The correlation coefficient between PLC and TP was 0.75, indicative of a large effect size, indicating that TP tends to increase as PLC increases. Table 3 presents the results of the correlations. Table 3: Pearson correlation results among IT, PLC and TP Combination r IT-PLC 0.72 IT-TP 0.58 PLC-TP 0.75 Note. p-values adjusted using the Holm correction. 95% CI [0.61, 0.80] [0.44, 0.69] [0.66, 0.82] n 112 112 112 p < .001 < .001 < .001 The results of the linear regression model were significant – F(3,108) = 79.85, p < .001, R2 = 0.69 – indicating that approximately 69% of the variance in PLC is explainable by TP and IT. TP significantly predicted PLC, B = 0.59, t(108) = 3.58, p < .001. This indicates that on average, a oneunit increase of TP will increase the value of PLC by 0.59 units. IT significantly predicted PLC, B = 0.43, t(108) = 2.09, p = .039. This indicates that on average, a one-unit increase of IT will increase the value of PLC by 0.43 units. The interaction between TP and IT did not have a significant effect on PLC, B = -0.02, t(108) = -0.38, p = .705. Based on this sample, a one-unit increase in TP does not significantly affect the relationship of PLC on IT. Table 4 summarises the results of the regression model. Table 4: Results for linear regression with TP, IT, and TP:IT predicting PLC Variable B SE 95% CI β t p (Intercept) 0.11 0.50 [-0.89, 1.10] 0.00 0.21 .834 TP 0.59 0.16 [0.26, 0.91] 0.57 3.58 < .001 IT 0.43 0.20 [0.02, 0.83] 0.51 2.09 .039 -0.02 0.06 [-0.14, 0.10] -0.13 -0.38 .705 TP:IT Note. Results: F(3,108) = 79.85, p < .001, R2 = 0.69 Unstandardized Regression Equation: PLC = 0.11 + 0.59*TP + 0.43*IT - 0.02*TP:IT The results of the linear regression model were significant – F(1,110) = 22.97, p < .001, R2 = 0.17 – indicating that approximately 17% of the variance in PLC is explainable by those institutions that have made the decision to go “online”. Online significantly predicted PLC, B = 0.28, t(110) = 4.79, 138 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 p < .001. This indicates that on average, a one-unit increase of online will increase the value of PLC by 0.28 units. Table 5 summarises the results of the regression model. Table 5: Results for linear regression with online predicting PLC Variable (Intercept) Online B 2.22 0.28 SE 0.17 0.06 95% CI [1.88, 2.55] [0.16, 0.39] β 0.00 0.42 t 13.20 4.79 p < .001 < .001 Note. Results: F(1,110) = 22.97, p < .001, R2 = 0.17 Unstandardized Regression Equation: PLC = 2.22 + 0.28*Online The results of the linear regression model were significant – F(2,109) = 7.58, p < .001, R2 = 0.12 – indicating that approximately 12% of the variance in PLC is explainable by COVID-19 working arrangements. The “I go to my institution on a rotational basis” category of COVID-19 work arrangements did not significantly predict PLC, B = 0.10, t(109) = 0.75, p = .455. Based on this sample, this suggests that moving from the “I work or study from Home” to “I go to my institution on a rotational basis” category of COVID-19 work arrangements does not have a significant effect on the mean of PLC. The “I am still on a normal shift as I used before COVID-19” category of COVID-19 work arrangements significantly predicted PLC, B = -0.45, t(109) = -3.00, p = .003. Based on this sample, this suggests that moving from the “I work or study from Home” to “I am still on a normal shift as I used before COVID-19” category of COVID-19 working arrangements will decrease the mean value of PLC by 0.45 units on average. Table 6 summarises the results of the regression model. Table 6: Results for linear regression with COVID-19 working arrangements predicting PLC Variable B SE 95% CI β t p (Intercept) 3.05 0.10 [2.86, 3.25] 0.00 31.19 < .001 COVID-19, I go to my institution on a [-0.17, 0.10 0.13 0.07 0.75 .455 rotational basis 0.37] COVID-19 I am still on a normal shift as I [-0.75, -0.45 0.15 -0.33 -3.00 .003 used before COVID-19 0.15] Note. Results: F(2,109) = 7.58, p < .001, R2 = 0.12 Unstandardised regression equation: PLC = 3.05 + 0.10*COVID-19 I go to my institution on a rotational basis - 0.45*COVID-19 I am still on a normal shift as I used before COVID-19 The results of the linear regression model were significant – F(1,110) = 5.61, p = .020, R2 = 0.05 – indicating that approximately 5% of the variance in PLC is explainable by implemented online learning. The “No” category of implemented online learning significantly predicted PLC, B = -0.39, t(110) = -2.37, p = .020. Based on this sample, this suggests that moving from the “Yes” to “No” category of implemented online learning will decrease the mean value of PLC by 0.39 units on average. Table 7 summarises the results of the regression model. 139 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 7: Results for linear regression with implemented online learning predicting PLC ff Variable (Intercept) Implemented online learning No B SE 95% CI β t p 3.03 0.06 [2.91, 3.16] 0.00 46.71 < .001 -0.39 0.17 [-0.73, -0.06] -0.22 -2.37 .020 Note. Results: F(1,110) = 5.61, p = .020, R2 = 0.05 Unstandardised regression equation: PLC = 3.03 - 0.39*implemented online learning “No” First, the reliability of the analysis was tested based on the sample size used to construct the model. Next, the results were evaluated using the Chi-square goodness of fit test and fit indices. Lastly, the squared multiple correlations (R2) for each endogenous variable were examined. The correlations between the latent variables are presented in table 8. Table 8: Correlation table for the latent variables Variable OPLC TP ITL OPLC 1.00 0.80 0.72 The node diagram is shown in figure 2. 140 TP -1.00 0.63 ITL --1.00 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 2: Node diagram for the SEM model Evaluating sample size. Factor analysis requires a large sample size to construct repeatable and reliable factors. A variety of authors suggest different benchmarks to determine sufficient sample size for SEM. Some authors use benchmarks based on overall sample size. A common rule of thumb for 141 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 determining sufficient sample size is 300 observations (Comrey & Lee, 2013; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2019). Other authors use the ratio N:q of the overall sample size to the number of free parameter estimates (latent variable, indicator, variance, covariance or any regression estimates) included in the model. Kline (2015) recommends that the N:q ratio should be about 20:1. Schreiber et al. (2006) suggest that the consensus for a sufficient N:q ratio is 10:1. On the lower end of the ratio, Bentler and Chou (1987) suggest that an acceptable N:q ratio is 5:1. The participant-to-item ratio for this analysis was approximately 3:1, where the sample size was 112 and the number of variables included was 36. Model fit. There are a variety of ways to measure if the SEM model adequately describes the data. The Chi-square statistic is the most popular statistic used to measure-model fit. Besides the Chisquare statistic, fit indices are also used to help researchers determine if the factor analysis model fits the data properly. Along with the Chi-square goodness of fit test, the following fit indices were used to assess the model fit: root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA); comparative fit index (CFI); Tucker-Lewis index (TLI); and standardised root mean square residual (SRMR). Fit indices. The TLI was less than .95, TLI = 0.88, which is indicative of a poor model fit (Hopper, Coughlan, & Mullen, 2008). The CFI was between .90 and .95, CFI = 0.90, suggesting that the model is not mis- specified and the fit is acceptable (Hooper et al., 2008). The RMSEA index was greater than .10, RMSEA = 0.13, 90% CI = [0.12, 0.15], which is indicative of a poor model fit (Hooper et al., 2008). The SRMR was greater than .08, SRMR = 0.22, implying that the model fit the data poorly (Hooper et al., 2008). The fit indices are presented in Table 9. To determine whether a model fits data, researchers typically use CFI and TLI thresholds greater than 0.90 and RMSEA less than 0.08. Goodness of fit test. A Chi-square goodness-of-fit test was conducted to determine if the SEM model fit the data adequately. It is standard practice for SEM to include the Chi-square test. However, this test is sensitive to sample size, which causes the test to almost always reject the null hypothesis and indicate a poor model fit when the sample size is large (Hooper et al., 2008). The results of the Chisquare goodness-of-fit test were significant – χ2(84) = 253.29, p < .001 – suggesting that the model did not adequately fit the data. However, the Chi-square model fit criterion is sensitive to sample size, and as sample size increases (normally above 200), the Chi-square statistic indicates probability values that are not statistically significant. Table 9: Fit indices for the SEM model NFI TLI CFI RMSEA 0.86 0.88 0.90 0.13 Note. RMSEA 90% CI = [0.12, 0.15]; -- indicates that the statistic could not be calculated. SRMR 0.22 Squared multiple correlations. The regressions in the model can be assessed by examining the R2 value of each endogenous variable. The R2 value identifies how much the regressions explain the endogenous variable in the model. An R2 value ≤ .20 suggests the endogenous variable is not adequately explained by the regression(s) in the model, and all regressions for that endogenous variable should be considered for removal from the model (Hooper et al., 2008). There were no endogenous variables with R2 values ≤ .20. The R2 values and the error variances for each endogenous variable are presented in table 10. 142 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Table 10: Estimated error variances and R2 values for each endogenous variable in the SEM model Endogenous Variable Standard Error OPLC SM CT CI AO CC RO CD FD DI IT1 IT2 IT3 IT4 IT6 Note. -- indicates the statistic could not be calculated. 0.08 0.22 0.21 0.07 0.11 0.10 0.13 0.07 0.04 0.13 0.45 0.31 0.22 0.18 0.22 R2 0.72 0.56 0.59 0.84 0.79 0.83 0.76 0.82 0.92 0.70 0.54 0.61 0.75 0.70 0.71 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Typical of millennials’ intuitive knowledge of technology, there were more responses from them in the sample. The regressions were examined based on an alpha value of 0.05. ITL significantly predicted OPLC, B = 0.27, z = 3.90, p < .001, indicating a one-unit increase in ITL would increase the expected value of OPLC by 0.27 units. TP significantly predicted OPLC, B = 0.54, z = 5.96, p < .001, indicating a one-unit increase in TP would increase the expected value of OPLC by 0.54 units. The PLC continuum rubric suggests that PLCs were formed online, meaning that online PLCs were present in the sample. Regression analysis indicates that teaching presence significantly predicts the existence of OPLCs. By utilising OPLCs, educators can learn how to utilise PLCs to enhance their professional development. This result, therefore, suggests that educators can have their CPD online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The correlation between teaching presence and OPLCs was 0.75, implying a large effect size, meaning the relationship between these bivariate variables is strong. REFERENCES Bentler, P., & Chou, C. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16(1), 78–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124187016001004 Brown, B. D., Horn, R. S., & King, G. (2018). The effective implementation of professional learning communities. Alabama Journal of Educational Leadership, 55–59. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavior sciences. West Publishing Company. Comrey, A. L., & Lee, H. (2013). A first course in factor analysis. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315827506 Garrison, D.R., Anderson,T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education 2(2–3): 87–105 Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. (2008). Structural equation modelling: guidelines for 143 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 determining the model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(1), 53–60. Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practices of structural equation modeling. Guilford Publications. Schreiber, J. B., Nora, A., Stage, F. K., Barlow, E. A., & King, J. (2006). Reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(6), 323–338. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2019). Using multivariate statistics. Pearson Education. 144 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 TECHNICAL SUPPORT NEEDS OF DISTANCE STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN ONLINE COURSES AT THE CENTRE OF OPEN AND LIFELONG LEARNING Mildred Juliana Besser Namibia University of Science and Technology (mbesser@nust.na) Aletta Mweneni Hautemo Namibia University of Science and Technology (ahautemo@nust.na) Abstract The premise of this study was to investigate the technical support needs of online students at the Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning (COLL). The aim was to establish effective ways to resolve the technical support needs of students and to enhance their optimal participation in online distance education. A descriptive case study design was used for this investigation, which relied on a quantitative research approach. Random sampling was used to recruit 60 online students, three online instructors, and five student support officers (SSOs) as research participants. Data were collected using questionnaires and were analysed thematically. The study found that sufficient technical support is hampered by the absence of a technical support team to attend to technical issues on time. A lack of an orientation course to introduce the students to the online platform crippled the students’ knowledge and skills to navigate and use the Moodle platform effectively. It is recommended that the institution considers technical support training for both faculty and students and harnesses operative communication channels between COLL and online students. Lastly, the provision of affordable and easy payment structures for data and online devices can decrease the technical problems for online students, as they create easy access to service and eliminate frustration posed by technology. Keywords: constructivism, technical support, open and distance learning, cognitivism, online learning INTRODUCTION The concept of traditional education has changed radically and as a result, the process of sitting in a classroom and studying is not regarded as a sole learning option. The rise of internet technologies emphasises the importance of online learning and the critical role it plays in people’s lives (Babson Survey Research Group, 2020). Internet technologies make online learning and e-Learning a sensible choice of learning, allowing people to study whenever and wherever they are. The use of different technological tools, such as laptops, smartphones and the Internet, among others, influence the modes of study in open and distance education (ODL). De Pryck et al. (2018) noted that information and communication technologies (ICT) formed the basis of ODL systems, which emphasises that technical support is an essential determining factor in online learning. Consequently, ODL institutions should be realistic with the amount of support available for students and decide whether additional technical support systems would be required to cope with the increased ICT burdens in education. With the rapid growth in technology and ICT, which have become a part of everyday life, online learning is emerging as a growing trend in Namibia. The Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning (COLL) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology provides learning to students who could not study full-degree programmes on a full-time basis. Owing to the eruption of COVID-19, the mode of learning for all students at the centre moved to online (hybrid for fewer courses, and full-fledged for many others), using the Moodle platform and 145 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 virtual conferencing tools such as MS Teams. The main concern observed as a threat to successful online learning has been the lack of technical support. Technical support becomes vital due to more students partaking in online ODL education at the institution as all courses were converted to online. Further, COLL has 10 regional centres equipped with a library and computer laboratories with wireless internet facilities. However, students still find it hard to upload their assignments and struggle to participate in online activities due to a lack of technical skills or sufficient technical assistance provided by the institution. Challenges have been observed regarding students’ accessibility to e-Learning. The latter is a paced weekly way of studying cooperatively with the tutors and students, utilising a virtual classroom that provides a variety of technology-enhanced learning tools, such as electronic text, images, animations, streaming video, and audio. The reality of the matter is that students in Namibia struggle with poor internet connectivity, expensive data, lack of electricity, low proficiency in technology, and unavailability of study devices, among others. Kamati (2020, April 01) stated that the Students Union of Namibia (SUN) requested Namibian universities to reconsider their decision to offer online learning due to poor internet connectivity in villages and informal areas. With the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, with the commencement of education, the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) expressed their concern that Namibia was not equipped to ensure that students all over the country would be able to enrol in online learning platforms or that they would have the necessary devices and secure internet. They suggested that the infrastructure be improved so that the entire country could access the Internet (Beyer, 2020). Wantulok (2015) maintains that for students to survive online learning, they must know technology and get adequate technical support. The success of any online course starts with students who can access the online learning environment. A lack of access and unsolved technical support may lead to a dropout of students or exclude students from online learning at COLL and they may become disappointed and frustrated during their online studies. This study attempted to determine the importance of technical support needs to ODL students due to the rapidly growing trend in online learning worldwide. The following research questions guided the study: • • • What types of online technical support does COLL offer to online students? What can COLL do to detect technology problems for online students? How can COLL provide adequate technical support to online students? THEORIES FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION This section discusses two theories that could be used to assist with the design and implementation of an effective online learning environment. Constructivist theory Constructivists view learning is a process in which the learner actively engages in new ideas through collaborative grouping situations, and active participation of students in problem-solving and critical thinking given authentic problems (Carwile, 2007; Lamon, 2020). Constructivism acknowledges the impact of technology in online learning by emphasising the advantage of the technological tools available to monitor students’ interaction and manage time wisely to overcome technical challenges (Higley, 2018). The constructivist theory could be used to harness the effective use of ICT, depending on greater access to information and communication to create an urge for technical support (Carwile, 2007). ICT helps more people to educate themselves and learn at a flexible time (Nawaz, 2010). Thus, the success of online learning depends on the skills and quality of technical support to end-users. Without proper technical support and maintenance of even the most current and sophisticated hardware and software, the ability of teachers and students to access and use technology is severely at risk (Valdez et al., 2004). From a constructivist view, online students can successfully collaborate with others, consult with online instructors, and share knowledge resources if they have the know146 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 how of technology. Critical to collaboration is an orientation to online courses and platforms. UNESCO (2002) recommends that technical support should start with an orientation at the beginning of the course. Estrada et al. (2013) posit that new student orientation programmes can reduce anxiety, improve online class attendance, and social and online autonomy, which impact on successful online learning and planning. Orientation is crucial for the smooth running of the course, as it introduces the students to all collaboration tools to use in the learning management system (LMS). Cognitivist theory Alzahrani and Woollard (2013) explained that cognitive learning theories permit online students to learn through interaction, construct knowledge and share knowledge-building experiences with the online instructor. Students acquire knowledge and information through the cognitivist theory, which facilitates the process of information acquisition (Kelly, 2012). Thus, the student actively seeks ways to process the information received and relate it to the knowledge already stored in their memory. Carwile (2007) posits that online students retain knowledge more effectively because of increased engagement and collaboration. Owing to distance and time constraints, the online instructor finds it challenging to observe how online students interact with the online learning environment. As a result, course designers and online lecturers should tailor online content to meet online learners’ cognitive abilities (Arshavskiy, 2018). Tinio (2002) emphasised that ICT has a remarkable impact on education, as both online instructors and students attain and absorb knowledge; this calls for ICT to be included as part of the curriculum to enhance the learning and teaching process. Raja and Nagasubramani (2018) argued that a university or institution with improper ICT systems never grows in today’s world; hence, using technology in teaching and learning processes is beneficial for the future learning direction, since online learning is here to stay. ICT NEEDED FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT It is vital to infuse technical support with online course development and facilitation to enable students and online instructors to interact with ease. Technical teams can integrate practical technology tools and resources to support interaction and information-sharing effectively. Research shows that students perceive more significant social interaction when creating and sharing in-depth messages (King, 2002). Technical support teams should be equipped with the necessary technical knowledge to assist in developing online students’ critical thinking skills and to learn with technology at their own pace (Hara et al., 2000). ICT provides powerful technology tools to support group work and enables groups to share online information and suggestions to enhance collaborative teaching and learning (Filipatali, 2013). Consequently, effective online learning requires appropriate ICT support systems, such as infrastructure, hardware and software. The integration of ICT as an instructional online learning tool in academic courses has escalated rapidly (Becker, 2000), resulting in the continued use of Moodle as an LMS at COLL. Research shows that Moodle as an LMS has a positive impact on online students’ performance. According to MartínBlas and Serrano-Fernández (2009), students who use Moodle obtain better results than those who do not. King (2021) indicated that self-technical support assistance on Moodle is available through the “Moodle Help for Students” and Moodle demo site. These sites are considered suitable for training students on the use of Moodle. Unfortunately, many universities, like NUST, are unaware of the support these Moodle sites provide. Challenges in technical support Nawaz and Khan (2012) argue that technical support is crucial for both the online instructor and the online learner. Online instructors need technical support to ensure the availability of resources and skills necessary for technology integration. They also need technical support to help them acquire the knowledge and skills to fulfil their unique curriculum requirements. Below are some technical support needs that challenge effective online learning. 147 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Inability to use the LMS The proper functioning of ODL depends on a robust technical support system to manage technical issues continually. According to Nawaz and Khan (2012), digital-age technology is changing fast. Compatibility and flexibility to adapt to different devices, and platforms are essential issues in the infrastructure of the online institution. They further argue that the reliability of equipment means that technical support staff can spend less time on maintenance and more time on training teachers and students in the use of the software. Resistance to change makes it difficult for online students to adapt to the online environment. According to Kumar (2015), students with a traditional mindset find it challenging to adapt; however, they need to accept the new learning circumstances. Students struggle to upload assignments and do not know the difference between a discussion and a chat (Career Guide, 2020). Providing students with the opportunity to collaborate, share and create learning resources would increase the use of various technologies and enhance students’ e-Learning experience (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Most people assume that students have the technical knowledge or are computer literate (Kumar, 2015). However, computer illiteracy is a significant issue among students. Students struggle to operate basic programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and are thus not able to fix fundamental computer problems through troubleshooting. This highlights the importance of technical proficiency to be able to use an LMS effectively. Kumar (2015) stated that technical proficiency enables students to manage their assignments and courseware without struggling. He further mentioned that introductory courses in computer literacy enhance students’ knowledge and could help them to participate effectively in online learning. Lack of technical staff Simpson (2000) asserts that technical staff capacity is one of the neglected support systems at ODL institutions. A lack of technical staff contributes to students’ struggle in online courses. Many institutions do not have qualified staff to handle technical issues related to ICTs in education and most especially the use of LMSs. Some institutions appoint student support officers (SSOs) and instructional designers, who are more knowledgeable in providing administrative support and content development-related support but may lack the ability to provide technical support. Therefore, ODL institutions should recognise the importance of technical support by assigning technical support staff to each department. No induction or orientation programme The effective use of the online LMS stimulates learning that is enacted through an induction programme for online learning. However, ODL institutions lack the availability of induction or orientation programmes to introduce students to the effective use of the LMS. Many online students drop out of their courses since they find it difficult to navigate and study online. Anderson and Dron (2011) reveal that technology failure, instructor feedback and lack of technical support contribute to online student dropout. Online students tend to become frustrated when technology does not function well or when they do not know what to do in the online course. Thus, without induction into the learning programme, online students become frustrated and lose confidence in their studies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY A descriptive case study research design was employed to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about real-world problems of technical support in ODL. This design kept the study focused and manageable because of the limited time and shed new light on the research problem. The target population consisted of 118 online students, three online instructors and five SSOs who participated in two full-fledged online courses at COLL in the year 2020. The probability sampling technique (Saunders et al., 2019) was compatible with the quantitative study. Simple random sampling, in which each population element had an equal chance of being selected, was used. The sample population was 60 online students randomly selected from two online courses, three online 148 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 instructors and five student support offices from COLL. Survey questionnaires were administered to online students, SSOs and online facilitators in two online courses. The table below indicates the response rate of participants. Table 1: Response rate of participants Participants Online students Student support officers Online instructors Total Questionnaires distributed 60 5 3 68 Number responses 26 3 2 31 Response rate in Percentage 43% 60% 66.6% 43% Google Doc Forms were used to collect and analyse all quantitative data. Google Forms is a powerful tool within Google Drive for creating online survey forms and collecting and analysing data that support necessary data validation (Kumar & Naik, 2016). The advantage of using Google Forms was to receive feedback for quick responses, analysis and storage (Kumar & Naik, 2016). Google Forms was integrated with Google spreadsheets, which provided access to a spreadsheet view and created graphs and tables to quickly analyse the data. Data were analysed in percentages and structured into grids and graphs to make it easier for the readers to understand the results. For ethical consideration, permission to conduct the research was sought from and granted by the acting Registrar of NUST and acting Director at COLL. Participants were informed of the nature and importance of the study and their rights to participate. Participant’s personal information remained anonymous. Willing participants were required to sign an informed consent letter. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS The findings are presented in four sub-sections below. Part A: Technical skills of online students 1. The type of electronic device students use for the online course The research results showed that 42% of the respondents used laptops, 12% used desktop computers, and 46% used smartphones. The findings revealed that online students who used smartphones experienced difficulties typing assignments and downloading huge files and videos. Fewer students used their phones for effective learning. Students indicated that they mostly used cell phones for reading, downloading documents and watching videos on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. The findings also revealed that students were more confident using laptops as learning devices. Students commented that smartphones had small screens which were not suitable for typing assignments; however, some students downloaded PDF and Microsoft Office documents to read offline. According to Darko-Adjei (2019), students use their cell phones for playing games and other leisure activities more than for learning. 149 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Electronic devices used by students Laptop desktop computer Laptop 42% Smartphone 46% Smartphone desktop computer 12% Figure 1: Electronic devices used by students The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence using a laptop, computer, or smart device for online learning. The results established that 64% of the respondents could confidently use a laptop, computer, or smartphone; 24% of the respondents were somewhat confident, and 12% were not confident. In the same vein, the study also showed that 12% of the respondents still needed to learn how to use a laptop or computer and were not computer literate. Although the findings indicate that more than 50% of the respondents could confidently use an electronic device, there is still a need for training on the effective use of electronic devices for learning. Figure 2: Confidence using electronic devices for online learning Further, the participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to do logins and surf the Internet. The study findings revealed that 48% of the participants could confidently log into the Internet and surf the Web; 40% had somewhat confidence, and 12% were not confident to log in and serve the Web. Thus, students should get support to familiarise themselves with the Internet and surfing the Web. 150 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Confidence to log in and surf the Internet Not confident 12% Confident Confident 48% Somewhat confident Not confident Somewhat confident 40% Figure 3: Confidence to log in and surf the Internet 2. Compatibility of the electronic software with the course e-Learning platform The findings show that 77% of the respondents had compatible software on the electronic devices used. This means these respondents could download different document formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office documents. The data also shows that 23% of the respondents found it difficult to download certain documents from the online platform. The study revealed that a lack of regular software upgrades may hinder the working of the online device. This implies that even a PDF and Microsoft Word document can be difficult to view and download because of a lack of regular upgrading and interrupts the smooth working of the electronic device used for online learning (Thomas, 2019). Not able to download PDF and Microsoft documents 23% Compatible software Able to download PDF and Microsoft documents Not able to download PDF and Microsoft documents Able to download PDF and Microsoft documents 77% Figure 4: Compatible software 3. Confidence to work on the LMS (Moodle) The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence in using Moodle LMS. The study findings (figure 5) show that 56% of the participants could confidently use Moodle; and 44% were not confident, thus, possibly needing training. 151 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Confidence to use Moodle not confident Confident 44% Confident not confident 56% Figure 5: Confidence of online students to use the LMS, Moodle The ability to use Moodle can be attributed to the fact that most of the respondents were first-year students. This highlights the importance of training on Moodle at the beginning of the course. According to Cook and Sonneberg (2014), the implementation of e-Learning through Moodle improves effectiveness and efficiency in education. 4. Confidence to upload and download course assignments and documents The study findings presented in figure 6 show that 57% of the participants could confidently upload assignments/documents, save their work and print documents; 29% were somewhat confident, and 14% were not confident. Thus, more training is needed on how to upload assignments/documents, save work and print documents. The study also revealed that students uploaded their assignments as a draft after failing to complete the entire submission process. These are some minor technicalities that prevented the students from submitting their assignments successfully. Confidence to upload assignments and print eBooks and documents Not confident 14% Confident Somewhat confident Not confident Somewhat confident 29% Confident 57% Figure 6: Confidence of online students to upload course assignments and documents Further, the participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to read and download online content for their online learning. The results established that 68% of the respondents could confidently read and download online content; 24% were somewhat confident, and 8% were not confident to read and download content. 152 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 5. Confidence to send and receive e-mails on the LMS The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to send and receive e-mails as well as to attach documents to e-mails. The study findings (figure 7) showed that 68% of the participants could confidently send and retrieve e-mails and attach documents to their e-mails; 28% were somewhat confident, and 4% could not send and retrieve e-mails. Thus, online students need training on the use of e-mails. Sending and receiving e-mails and attachments Not confident 4% Somewhat confident 28% Confident 68% Confidetn Somewhat confident Not confident Figure 7: Confidence of online students sending and retrieving e-mails 6. Confidence in partaking in online discussions and quizzes The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to participate in online discussions. The results established that 35% of the respondents could confidently partake in online discussion forums. Forty per cent (40%) of the respondents were somewhat confident, and 25% were not confident about partaking in online discussions. Confident in participating in online discussions Not donfident 25% Confident 35% Confident Somewhat confident Not donfident Somewhat confident 40% Figure 8: Online students’ confidence to partake in discussion forums 153 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 The participants were also asked to rate their level of confidence to take online quizzes. The research results established that 65% of the respondents could confidently take online quizzes, and 35% were somewhat confident to take online quizzes. Thus, online students need assistance in attempting online quizzes. Confidence in taking online quizzes Not confident 0% Somewhat confident 35% Confident Somewhat confident Not confident Confident 65% Figure 9: Confidence in taking online quizzes 7. Confidence to change profile, passwords and access grades The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to change their profiles and passwords and access their grades. The findings (figure 10) show that 54% of the respondents could confidently change their profiles, and passwords and access their grades; 34% were somewhat confident, and 12% were not confident. Thus, orientation sessions are needed on changing profiles and passwords and accessing grades. Change profile, password and view grades 60 54 50 40 34 30 20 12 10 0 Confident Somewhat confident Not confident Figure 10: Online students’ confidence to change profiles, passwords and access to grades 154 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 8. Confidence to communicate with the instructor and online friends The participants were asked to rate their level of confidence to communicate with their online instructors and friends. The findings in figure 11 show that 65% of the participants could confidently ask questions and communicate with their online instructor or online friends, and 35% were not confident. Confidence to communicate online Not confident 35% Confident Not confident Confident 65% Figure 11: Confidence to ask questions and communicate with the instructor and friends Part B: Technical support for online students Part B presents the results from the survey questionnaires to analyse the technical skills of online students in two online courses at COLL. 1. Communication with online students at the beginning of the course The participants were asked to confirm if they had been contacted at the beginning of the online to get information on their shortcomings in the course. The chart (figure 12) indicates that 96% of the respondents were not contacted, and 4% were contacted. This can reflect badly on the institution, and online students may lose their trust in the institution. The online institution contacted online learners No No; 96% Yes Yes; 4% 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Figure 12: Online students contacted at the beginning of the course 2. Training provided to online students The findings established that 58% of the participants received training to navigate the online course and submit discussions and quizzes. Moreover, the online students received training on how to change 155 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 their profile and login details at the beginning of the course so that other students could not use their login credentials. The results showed that the majority (68%) of the participants knew how to change their profile and login details. A smaller percentage of 32% indicated that they did not know how to change their profile and login details. This could be the result of a lack of training for teachers and management. The findings indicate that COLL provided training as a method of technical support. However, 42% of the online students did not receive training; thus, these online students lacked technical support and lost out on certain techniques to navigate their online courses. Mir (2016) further suggested grouping the type of challenges received from online students to indicate the total queries pending. 3. Provision of affordable data and online devices The participants were asked to indicate whether COLL had provided affordable online devices and data to students who did not have any electronic devices, laptops, or computers. The research results (figure 13) showed that the majority (92%) of the respondents indicated “no” – the online institution did not provide online devices and data to students, and online students need an online device and affordable data. Students had a choice to indicate on their Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) application forms if they wanted to take out a loan for electronic devices such as a laptop and data devices; however, only 8% indicated that they took the loan. Provision of affordable data and online devices Institution did not provide affordable data and devices 8% Institution provide affordable data and online devices Institution did not provide affordable data and devices Institution provide affordable data and online devices 92% Figure 13: Provision of affordable data and electronic devices to online students The lack of data and online devices created new technical issues, such as missing submission dates of assignments, discussion forums and students falling behind with their studies (Bingimlas, 2009). The majority of the online student respondents indicated that they needed an essential device, and some students used their cell phones as technical device devices for their studies. Students revealed that the screens of their cell phones were too small for studies and that cell phones were not effective for typing assignments. Thus, COLL should consider the provision of affordable data and technical devices that meet the needs of online learners. It is recommended that students make use of the loan system of NSFAF to buy online devices and data devices. 4. Handling of technical problems experienced by online students The results presented in figure 14 show that 64% of the respondents said that the online institution did not deal immediately with their technical problems. Thirty-six per cent of the online students 156 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 indicated that the institution dealt immediately with their technical problems. This may be the result of negligence in technical support. Institution dealt immediately with technical problems of online learners Yes 36% Yes No No 64% Figure 14: Handling of technical problems experienced by online students at COLL 5. The level of interaction and motivation of online classmates The research results in figure 15 show that 8% of the responses indicated that the participation and motivation of online friends were poor and 63% were satisfactory. However, 29% indicated there was good interaction between online students on the Moodle platform. Interaction between online students on Moodle Poor 8% Good 29% Poor Satisfactory Good Satisfactory 63% Figure 15: Interaction and motivation of online classmates 6. Online support provided by the e-Tutor throughout the e-Learning course The research results (figure 16) show that 25% of the respondents indicated that they received poor online support, and 46% indicated that online support was satisfactory. Thus, there is a need for effective and more online learning support on the part of the e-Tutor. Only 29% indicated that online support was good on the part of the e-Tutor. 157 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 e-Tutor online support Poor 25% Good 29% Poor Satisfactory Good Satisfactory 46% Figure 16: Online support by the online instructor to online students 7. The assistance provided by the student support officer The participants were asked to rate the assistance provided by the student support officer for their online problems. The results (figure 17) showed that the majority (71%) of the respondents said they were not happy with the support provided by SSOs. The other 29% received effective support from the SSOs. SSOs were overloaded with other work and did not provide effective student support. Support provided by student support officers (SSOs) Effective technical support provided 29% Effective technical support provided No effective technical data provided No effective technical data provided 71% Figure 17: Assistance provided by student support officers to online students 8. Provision and completion of the course evaluation survey The research results (figure 18) show that the majority (71%) said they completed a survey at the end of the course to measure their technical problems during the online course. Twenty-nine per cent (29%) indicated that there was no survey at the end of the course to measure their technical problems. 158 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Provision and completion of the course evaluation survey Yes No 29% No Yes 71% Figure 18: Provision and completion of online course evaluation surveys According to Mir (2016), the success of online students depends on the level and various forms of ICT support services available. He further indicated that a comprehensive technical student support system that integrates with the queries of students and provides effective solutions to online students is a necessity for any institution. A total of 96% of online students indicated that COLL did not provide technical support. This is an indication that technical challenges were experienced by online students at COLL. Common technical challenges included a lack of data, error messages, continuous loading of online notes, uploading the wrong assignment and high similarity rates, and the use of cell phones as a technical device for studies. These challenges can be eliminated immediately by a technical team who would attend to student queries and not repeat themselves. Part C: The response rate of the student support officers This section presents the results on the technical support provided by the SSOs to online students. Three SSOs out of a sample of five participants responded to the survey questionnaires, thus a percentage of 60%. The visual presentation of data in graphs in percentages enabled the researcher to offer an analytical description and interpretation of data employing descriptive statistical procedures. The results from the survey to rate the technical support services provided by SSOs at COLL are presented in the following subsections. 1. Satisfaction with technical support services provided The findings show that the majority of respondents (66.7%) confirmed that the online technical services provided were comparable and at the same level as those services offered in the traditional learning mode. Further, 33.3% revealed that there was a difference in the technical support offered to online students and those in the traditional methods. The results further show that all student support officers provided technical support after hours from 16H30. This could benefit online learners, since more students were online after hours because of work responsibilities or during lunchtime when they were free. The study findings established that 66.7% provided immediate technical support to online students. The rest (33.3%) indicated that they did not provide immediate technical support. The research results show that all SSOs indicated that they knew how Moodle worked and could assist with other technical criteria the institution used; thus, they could provide technical support to online students. However, they indicated that they were reluctant to offer extra support to students who were doing full-fledged online courses, as it put pressure on their workload. This indicates that students may suffer in silence with their technical problems, which could reflect badly on the online institution and technical support system. 159 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 2. The functionality of the Moodle platform The SSOs were asked if they had experienced any problems with the functionality of the Moodle platform. The findings in figure 19 established that 67% of the respondents experienced no problems with the functionality of Moodle at COLL. Further, 33% of the respondents indicated that they had experienced minor technical problems with the LMS (Moodle). Thus, online students experienced challenges with Moodle. These challenges could hamper learning and submission of assessments. Immediate attention is needed to make sure the LMS functionality is effective. Functionality of the Moodle platform Minor problems experienced 33% Problems experienced Minor problems experienced Problems experienced 67% Figure 19: Challenges experienced by online students on Moodle Moreover, 66.7% indicated that SSOs referred online students with technical challenges to the IT department since they were not comfortable with technical issues. This emphasises the importance of a technical support unit at online institutions. 3. Provision of training for student support officers Student support officers SSOs were asked to indicate if they had received training from the online institution on how to deal with the technical problems of online students. The findings established that 66.7% of the respondents did not receive training on how to deal with technical issues. This could be an obstacle because, in the absence of training, the institution would not be able to provide efficient technical support. SSOs can be an asset to online institutions and online students. The provision of technical support by SSOs, instructional designers, and online instructors, whether they have the technical knowledge or not, could lessen the tension among online students. It is evident that SSOs refuse to provide technical support because of a lack of technical skills and, as a result, this has a repelling effect on students to work efficiently online and on their appreciation for the opportunities that online learning has to offer. Part D: The response rate of online instructors This section presents the results from the survey questionnaires to analyse the online instructors’ technical support provided to online students. Two online facilitators responded to the survey questionnaire. The visual presentation of data in graphs in percentages enabled the researcher to offer an analytical description and interpretation of the data, employing descriptive statistical procedures. The findings are presented in the following subsections. 160 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 1. Provision of technical support by online instructors The study findings established that 50% indicated that technical support to online students was only provided at the beginning of the course. Thus, 50% of the online students did not get technical support during the year, which may be bad for their online experience. 2. Monitoring of online students Online instructors were asked if they monitored their online courses and students’ work weekly, and 50% of the respondents indicated that they monitored their online students weekly and continually sent out reminders. The remaining 50% did not monitor their students and did not go into students’ activities to see how they were faring in the course. This is not a good reflection on the online course, since it may result in online students falling behind and losing out on important assessments. The tutors were asked to indicate whether they had sent out reminders every week to students reminding them of the week’s tasks. The research results showed that all respondents who took part in the study sent out reminders to remind online students about learning activities due for the week. 3. Assisting online students with technical challenges Tutors also reflected on their willingness to assist students with any technical problems and to work out solutions to solve the problem immediately. The research results showed that all the respondents who took part in the study were willing to assist online students with technical problems and found immediate solutions for these technical difficulties. All respondents indicated that they understood if online students had internet difficulties and gave online students extensions for the submission of assignments and other online tasks/activities. 4. Provision of effective feedback When asked to reflect on the provision of feedback for effective learning to online students, all respondents indicated that they did provide effective feedback to their online students. This is an advantage for every student, and it assists online students with their learning. The tutors explained why it was important for one to provide marks to online students within two weeks. One tutor reflected that: Timely grading of student’s work and the provision of feedback is regarded as stimulants for students to be motivated for future submissions. It also guides students to avoid making the same mistakes as indicated by the lecturer. About checking when the students submitted their assessments and marking them immediately, the results showed that 50% of the respondents checked constantly when students submitted assignments and marked them immediately. The other 50% did not check constantly and did not mark assignments immediately. This can be a bad reflection on the institution because prompt feedback is essential for any online course. 5. Managing the online courses independently Online instructors were asked if they managed the online course on their own and needed a little help from instructional designers and technical support officers. Fifty per cent needed assistance, and the other 50% did not need assistance. The results also showed that all respondents could reply immediately to online students’ problems and re-question. This is a good reflection, and technical support is provided immediately. Continued research on technical challenges would reduce technical issues (Bingimlas, 2009). Instructional designers, SSOs, online instructors, and ICT experts can work in collaboration to overcome the technical challenges of online learners. 161 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS The findings indicated that online students at COLL need effective electronic devices. Students used their cell phones as technical device devices for their studies, and they experienced challenges to type assignments on their cell phones. It is also difficult to read on the screen of a cell phone. Cook and Sonneberg (2014) stated that online education and students change continuously, as is the case with technological innovations, the Internet, and computer software; thus, it is vital to consider the changes in approaches to online development and devices. Effective online learning should create a mobilefriendly framework that allows for comprehensive viewing of all online environments. Using collaborative tools and devices could allow online instructors and students to connect at anytime, anywhere. Therefore, COLL should provide affordable data and devices as part of its technical support to students. The research findings indicated that COLL did not conduct an evaluation surveying the technical issues of online students after the completion of courses. Research and development are vital in online learning and can identify online challenges experienced by students to develop operational strategies that improve teaching and learning. Another barrier that affects technical support is the effectiveness of communication. The study found that there was a lack of confidence to communicate with the institution, online instructors, and online students. Through effective communication, ODL institutions can acquire numerous information on online students’ challenges. COLL should create an effective communication structure online to communicate with online students. According to Isman et al. (2003), eliminating communication barriers in online learning is a step to overcoming difficulties and is necessary to get meaningful communication to restore online problems. Mir (2016) states that the success of online students depends on the level and various forms of ICT support services available. The author further indicated that a comprehensive technical student support system that integrates with the queries of students and provides an effective solution to online students is a necessity for any institution. The majority of online students indicated that COLL did not provide technical support. Common technical challenges – such as the lack of data, error messages, continuous loading of online notes, uploading the wrong assignment and high similarity rates, and using cell phones as a technical device for studies – are experienced at COLL. According to the SSOs, there was a lack in the provision of technical training at COLL. Technical training is an important component of effective technical support. The workload of SSOs makes it impossible for them to provide technical training and, therefore, the SSOs referred students to the IT department for support. SSOs had more knowledge about administrative and academic support but lacked technical skills. These challenges could be eliminated immediately by recruiting a technical team who would attend to students’ and tutors’ queries. The provision of technical support by SSOs, instructional designers, and online instructors – whether they have the technical knowledge or not – can reduce the tension among online students. The study indicates that SSOs lack the confidence to provide technical support because of a lack of technical skills. According to Kumar (2015), students with a traditional mindset find it challenging to adapt; thus, changing the mindset of online students by interacting with online students and creating a collaborative, caring online environment may strengthen their love for online learning. Yang and Cornelius (2004) stated that when online students have technical challenges, they need someone to help them immediately. The first person they think about for assistance is their online instructor rather than SSOs. However, tutors felt that they were not fully equipped to provide technical support to online students. All SSOs indicated that they had the necessary knowledge to work on the Moodle platform. This was a great achievement for COLL. This knowledge should be communicated to online students through essential technical support. This calls for the implementation of operative strategies, such as that COLL, to ensure that continuous monitoring of the online platform is in place. Factors that demotivate students in online learning, such as delayed feedback and unavailable technical support, should be 162 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 dealt with through proper training of the staff members and faculty. Lastly, the implementation of technical training to SSOs and online instructors at COLL is suggested. CONCLUSION The study reveals that technical support is an essential aspect of online learning and should be part of any ODL structure. COLL only concentrates on academic and administrative support and neglects technical support. As the number of online students is increasing, the study concludes that COLL should establish technical support systems. Common challenges that are experienced by online students at COLL can be addressed immediately with the help of a technical team. The provision of affordable data and electronic devices is one strategy of technical support. Another strategy to decrease the technical challenges of online students at COLL is training to navigate the online platform, assignment submissions, and the use of Turnitin to test similarity rates. More research on online challenges at COLL should be conducted. This would create awareness of the necessity of technical support. An operative communication channel between COLL and online students should be established. The traditional mindset of online students should be changed to create a love for online learning. Operative strategies should be in place to enhance the effective use of technical tools with online students. COLL can provide adequate technical support by continuously upgrading and testing the Moodle platform. The provision of affordable and easy payment structures for data and online devices can decrease the technical problems of online students. It is concluded that the implementation of technical training for online instructors and SSOs should be a necessity at COLL. The provision of training on how to minimise similarity rate, submit assignments and navigate the Web should be introduced to online students. It is recommended that COLL offers a compulsory orientation programme for all online courses on offer. REFERENCES Alzahrani I., & Woollard, J. (2013). The role of the constructivist learning theory collaborative learning environment on wiki classroom, and the relationship between them. 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Students’ perception towards the quality of online education: A quality framework. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED485012.pdf. 165 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 EXPLORING MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES AS MITIGATING TOOLS FOR ONLINE LEARNING CRISIS Michael Agyemang Adarkwah Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, 12F, Block A, Jingshi Technology Building, No. 12 Xueyuan South Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100082, China (adarkwahmichael1@gmail.com) Samuel Amponsah Department of Distance Education, School of Continuing and Distance Education, College of Education, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana College of Education, University of South Africa, Sunnyside, Pretoria Yohana Kifle Mekonen Faculty of Education, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, P. R. China Edna Pambour Agyemang Department of Geography, Resource Development, and Department of Economics, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG50, Legon Abstract Some educators seem to dwell on the popular belief that mobile devices have a disruptive influence on education. In the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, during which the abrupt disruption of education had forced many institutions to embrace online learning, those in developing countries such as Ghana faced unique challenges. A phenomenological qualitative inquiry approach involving tertiary students (n = 20) from three institutions was used to problematize the online instruction in Ghana and to present the integral role of mobile technologies in education. The paper reinforces the need to adopt mobile technologies to mitigate “challenge-ridden” online learning, as participants perceived m-learning as a pedagogical arsenal to battle the disruption in education. The researchers report that handheld mobile devices can be adopted as an effective learning tool for both online and offline or blended instruction during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators should integrate mobile technologies in education to aid struggling institutions with limited physical space to enrol more students and continue the online instruction to achieve lifelong education. Future studies should focus on the learning outcomes of m-learning in this pandemic era and how they can be used as a crisismanagement tool post-pandemic. Keywords: mobile technologies; online learning; e-learning; m-learning; COVID-19 INTRODUCTION Many educational institutions in low-income countries were reluctant to embrace online learning until it was prompted by the COVID-19 crisis (Adarkwah, 2020, 2021a). Although COVID-19 primarily affects health, its spillover effect on other aspects of human life led to a disruption to the status quo for education delivery. Since the discovery of the COVID-19 disease in Wuhan City of China in December 2019 (Karasmanak & Tsantopoulos, 2021) and its declaration as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020), almost all human activities, including education, have been suffering from its devastating effect. The lockdown and social distancing norms implemented to curb the virus led to the sudden closure of schools in 188 countries, affecting the education of over 91% of the student population globally (UNESCO, 2020). Online learning emerged as a panacea for the complete paralysis of education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (Adarkwah, 2020; Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). However, the emergent nature of the transition from traditional face-to-face (F2F) delivery to 166 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 the online modality of instruction meant that many schools, teachers and students were unprepared. Concerns about the weakness of online learning are widespread in most developing countries (Bhagat et al., 2020). In Ghana, online instruction was labelled as “challenge ridden” by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) (Adarkwah, 2020, 2021b). In Nigeria, the challenge of procuring ICT tools negatively affected online learning (Oyediran et al., 2020). The high cost of internet served as a barrier to the effective implementation of online learning in Ethiopia (Mengistie, 2020). Though online learning has saved education institutions from collapsing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, its expensive nature is a real challenge. Consequently, many education institutions are looking for costeffective ways to instruct students online. Technological applications offer learning opportunities in the form of virtual classes, m-learning and online learning. Hence, technologies for mobile learning (m-learning) have become an important approach for most schools to be at the forefront of progressive education in this pandemic era. The role of technology in revolutionizing education has been highly acknowledged. Mobile technologies, such as tablets and smartphones, are interwoven into the fabric of life and are more affordable for teaching and learning (France et al., 2020). The ubiquitous spread of mobile tools such as iPads, smartphones, tablets, and mobile applications such as Skype, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et cetera, demonstrate our digital dependency and have also provided a new landscape for digital learning to be realized. The significance of mobile technologies in education cannot be underrated, as teachers can instruct and students can self-study online (Razzaque, 2020), surf for new knowledge and take snapshots/screenshots online without time and space limitations due to their mobility, unlike laptops/desktops that limit physical mobility because of their bulky nature (Churchill, 2020). As many countries experienced a second and probably a third wave of the virus, even with the prospect of a potent vaccine (Mahase, 2020), online learning as the “new normal” for instruction is likely to persist for a long time. The challenges that have fraught schools in low-income countries like Ghana and the possibility of reclosing schools because of increasing COVID-19 cases in the country calls for alternative solutions to ensure the educational careers of students are not in jeopardy. Thus, the authors attempt to position mobile technologies for m-learning as a cost-effective, innovative and novel means to continue the online modality of instruction in low-income countries such as Ghana. In Ghana and other developing countries, mobile technologies can help address the digital divide that poses a threat to online learning in the COVID-19 crisis. The following principal question led this research: What are the challenges of online learning in Ghana, and how can these challenges be mitigated through the adoption of mobile technologies? THE PRESENT STUDY Statistical data show that in West Africa, Ghana has the highest mobile penetration (Omondi, 2020). As of the end of 2019, Ghana had a mobile adoption rate of 55%, which is higher than the Sub-Saharan Africa regional average. Consequently, a considerable number of people (e.g., teachers and students) can be served via digital technology in the country. The failure of many promulgated ICT policies in Ghana such as the “one child, one laptop” policy (Adarkwah, 2020) and the failure of online instruction in this pandemic era, which may not die out soon, invite alternative solutions such as the use of mobile technologies to advance education. As projections show Ghana has a lot of mobile users (figure 1), mobile technologies with their affordances can serve as an alternative route to ensure the success of the online mode of teaching and learning. The present study acknowledges the failure of online learning in Ghana with empirical evidence and demonstrates how mobile technologies can be a game-changer and long-term plan for institutions that have limited physical space for F2F instruction and are struggling to instruct students online. 167 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 1: Mobile users in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Source (GSMA Intelligence) LITERATURE REVIEW Online learning Online learning occurs over the Internet, either synchronously or asynchronously, and is associated with the use of technology, which connotes that interaction between teachers and students and among students is mediated by technology. The ability to stay at home and study, concerns about health associated with daily commuting and physical contact with people, family obligations and convenience are some of the main reasons why students prefer online instruction in higher education (Landrum et al., 2020). Hussein et al. (2020) also added that online learning is considered as the choice of instruction for learners with financial constraints, older people with more familiar duties and those with work-related responsibilities who are unable to study on campus. Some of the popular applications used for online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic were Zoom, Google Classroom, Coursera, Blackboard Learn, Future Learn, TED-Ed, ClassMate, and Classwize (Mishra et al., 2020). M-learning M-learning is a multifaceted terminology that has different meanings to different people (Cowan & Butler, 2013). Crompton (2013, p. 83) defines mobile learning as “learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices”. Simply, m-learning is any type of learning that occurs with the use of mobile technologies or devices. Cowan and Butler (2013) and Kumar (2018) acknowledge that m-learning is closely linked to e-learning. Thus, m-learning can be both an indoor (offline) and outdoor activity (online). Accordingly, m-learning is considered as a new platform for e-learning in the field of digital education (Wang et al., 2020). Students can use mobile learning applications on their mobile devices to access learning materials irrespective of their geographical location or time (Kuadey et al., 2020). Thus, the flexibility of m-learning allows teaching and learning to happen without any limit to a specified location or time (Kumar, 2018). Moreover, m-learning can increase the learning experience and academic outcomes of students (Kumar, 2018). One key advantage of m-learning is its mobility and its efficiency in leading to better learning experiences. Mobile learning systems offer users high levels of constant interactivity, intercity and easy communication with different learners, enable users to make use of sensor data, and bring out learning content depending on the education setting (Jagušt & Botički, 2019). Some of the negative effects of m-learning are that it can create isolation among learners and high dependency on online platforms for learning content (Kumar, 2018). Also, small screen size of 168 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 mobile devices, small keyboards, and the possibility of distraction contribute to the undesirable side of m-learning. Despite the shortfalls identified with m-learning, Diao and Hedberg (2020) estimated that it constitutes around 57% of all learning technologies. The authors estimate that the inroads mlearning keeps making on the education front amid the COVID-19 pandemic seem to establish it as key to the redefinition of instruction even beyond the crisis. Mobile technology mitigate the challenges of online learning In this digital age, most learners have access to mobile technologies that are more robust and have a better connection than conventional desktop computers (France et al., 2020). Mobile technologies as handy information technology devices comprise hardware (i.e., devices), software (i.e., interfaces and applications), and communication systems (i.e., network services). Mobile technologies have powerful technical features that allow new forms of learning to take place in diverse educational contexts (Xue, 2020). Thus, mobile devices possess omnipresent features that allow instruction to happen beyond traditional spaces and foster convenient, personalized and customized learning using mobile applications (Diao & Hedberg, 2020). Moreover, mobile technologies such as tablets and smartphones are portable and multifunctional in nature and possess a wide array of applications that aid students in learning (France et al., 2020). These technologies can be used by students for online activities on any learning platform. The unique characteristics of mobile technologies, including their wireless communication ability, can aid teachers to instruct their students online via m-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kim and Padilla (2020) also mentioned that mobile technologies such as cellphones and tablets could be used for educational purposes during the COVID-19 era. Irrespective of the geographical location of learners, they can surf for content online and access three-dimensional virtual platforms using their mobile devices (Wang et al., 2020). In Ghana, an increasing number of students at the university level have mobile devices that can help them to access massive open online courses (MOOCs), which may also extend access to learning for students in rural areas (Kuadey et al., 2020). THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This study adopted France et al.’s (2020) pedagogical framework for mobile technology integration (see figure 2) to demonstrate how mobile technologies can be effectively incorporated into teaching and learning (France et al., 2020). The framework suggests that to integrate mobile technologies into a course or assessment, there are two crucial components to consider: 1) the pedagogical basis and the reason for implementation; and 2) technological considerations and perceived issues to be encountered. According to progenitors, the two components should be treated independently as demonstrated in the diagram (figure 2) – pedagogical framework (P) and technological consideration (T) – which ultimately results in effective use of mobile technologies at the center of the diagram. The pathway consists of a set of guiding questions for educators and researchers to ponder about the effect on instruction of incorporating mobile learning into the curriculum. Moving through the guiding questions in the pathway, any “no” answer has a short guiding statement to be followed. The principal constructs that should underpin the planning and implementation of mobile technologies in the classroom include personalization (enables student to engage in learning tasks and allows instructors to customize learning), authenticity (mobile technologies should not make learning complex but fluid by allowing for adaptive learning spaces and should be familiar to students), and collaboration (mobile technology should foster conversation and allow for data sharing). The theory proved to be a useful lense to guide the current researchers to problematize online instruction in Ghana and present the integral role of mobile technologies in education. 169 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Figure 2: Pedagogical framework for mobile technology integration into course or assessment (France et al., 2020) METHOD Qualitative inquiry was used for the purpose of this study. Liamputtong (2019) states that qualitative inquiry involves an examination of social circumstances of people based on the assumption that researchers can unearth what people see, hear and feel. The phenomenological design that aligns with the interpretive paradigm guided the process of inquiry. A phenomenological research design provides a description of “phenomena as they manifest in our experience, of the way we perceive and understand phenomena, and of the meaning phenomena have in our subjective experience” (Neubauer et al., p. 92). Participants in this study faced challenges in their attempt to study online during the COVID-19-engineered sudden shift to online learning and needed a space to share their experiences. Liamputtong (2019) highlights that the value of qualitative inquiry cannot be underestimated when it comes to amplifying the voices of the marginalized. In the light of the above, the current study sought to problematize online instruction in Ghana and present the integral role of mobile technologies in education through the voices of the study participants. Qualitative data were gathered by the researcher from 15 tertiary students who experienced online learning in Ghana, and their views were used to problematize online learning. These 15 students comprised nine males and six females. Ten of the participants were from a public university; three were pre-service teachers being trained in a college of education at the time; and the remaining two were undergoing training in a nursing training college. Fifteen participants were recruited – first, because of their involvement in online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown period and second, because of their agreement to participate by their own volition. 170 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Sampling of these institutions was based on judgement sampling, as they had found ways of resuming teaching and learning during the lockdowns between April and May 2020. Two research assistants (RAs) trained to help in the fieldwork distributed permission letters to the management of selected institutions between July and August. Upon receipt of acceptance from the institutions to commence fieldwork, the RAs informally engaged with students to establish contact with those who had learned online; this also led the RAs to other students who had done same. The RAs collected the phone and WhatsApp contact details of the participants and agreed on convenient dates for the interviews. This selection criteria positioned us to get access to information-rich cases for an in-depth study of the challenges Ghanian higher education students faced while learning online (Patton, 2015). A semi-structured interview guide developed by the researcher based on extant literature was used to solicit information from the participants on the challenges to online learning. The interview guide was structured into three sections. The first section sought information on the biographical information of the participants. The second section elicited responses on their experience during the COVID-19-engineered online learning, and the last section solicited reactions on their perception of mobile technologies for m-learning. The structure of the interview guide permitted the researcher to ask open-ended questions to enable participants to elaborate more their experiences. The instrument was screened individually and collaboratively by the researchers to ensure there were no errors in formatting, structure and construction and that it would elicit responses for the purposes of the study aim. A day before each interview, based on the agreement made beforehand between the participants and RAs, an introductory letter was sent to the participants via WhatsApp that explained the purpose of the study and also formally sought their consent to participate in the study. All interviews were conducted in English via WhatsApp video calls. The interviews were conducted between July and August 2021. On average, each interview lasted 30 minutes. The researchers downloaded the interview data from the WhatsApp storage and transcribed each interview verbatim using the Microsoft Office (MS) Word tool. All transcriptions were sent to the participants to validate before the analysis was done. None of the participants had any queries about the transcribed data we sent to them. In analyzing the collected data, the transcript was imported to the NVivo 11 software. Using the Node option, a coding table was generated based on the main categories outlined during the literature review (challenges to online learning and mobile technologies for m-learning). Following the stepwise approach of Colaizzi (1978), new nodes were created under the two main categories for all emergent themes. The rigorous and robust data analysis framework by Colaizzi (1978) ensured reliability and credibility of the research findings. The first step was reading and re-reading the transcripts to help the researchers obtain a thorough understanding of the phenomenon. The second step was extracting key statements from participants. In the third step, the extracted statements from each of the participants was aggregated to generate interconnected themes. Seven interconnected themes were formulated under the first category (challenges of online learning), while six themes emerged under the second category (mobile technologies for m-learning). As discussed in the next section, a comprehensive description of the identified themes was provided. Finally, participants were requested to validate the research findings by sending a copy of the analyzed result to them through WhatsApp. Participants agreed that the results of the study reflected their experiences and perceptions. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS The results of this study are discussed in the context of the study participants’ views, the literature review, and the theoretical framework to determine the challenges confronting online learners in Ghanaian HEIs and how best m-learning can be deployed to assuage the challenges. 171 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Challenges of online learning in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the cracks as regards the digital divide among learners in various institutions in Ghana, as it came to light that not every student was able to participate in online learning for various reasons, including inadequate access to the Internet, high cost of the online learning process (data bundles), limited access to electricity, lack of ICT facilities/tools, geographical location, and glitches in the online learning system. As regards internet access, a respondent mentioned that “the poor in the village have already paid school fees but are unable to have good internet for the online learning. We also have bad networks.” A study conducted on online learning in HEIs in Ghana found that students lamented difficulties associated with accessing the Internet due to financial unpreparedness (Adarkwah, 2020). Some of the students who enrolled in online learning also resided outside network coverage areas and were, therefore, unable to engage in online instruction. This challenge affected communication and social interactions. As one respondent said “the intercommunication between lecturers and students is very poor. Communication is not good. You will be having a class and then the network starts misbehaving.” Thus, problems with internet connectivity affected social interactions/communication between instructors and students. In science-related courses, such as mathematics and physics, missing a key word in an instructor’s speech can affect a student’s ability to comprehend succeeding lessons. Additionally, students were unable to submit their assignments on time. A respondent stated that “[f]or the online learning, sometimes you are given a test like mathematics with 24 questions and then the system takes 15 minutes to submit.” In their study on the impact of COVID-19 on education, OwusuFordjour et al. (2020) reported that a high percentage of their respondents found the online learning platform ineffective. Students also lamented the high cost of purchasing bundles to access teaching content and submit their assignment. According to the students, coupled with the expensive cost of data bundles is the lack of ICT tools, primarily laptops and desktops computers, which were more aligned with accessing online learning platforms. For example, one respondent mentioned: “the school does not provide us with ICT tools. If you don’t have these ICT tools, you have to share that of a friend.” Access to electricity was also a major problem both for students in urban and rural areas due to power instability in the country. However, for some students in remote areas, they were yet to get electricity supply to their vicinities, which meant they were cut off from learning online. Those with electricity power supply also experienced frequent power outages, which made the learning process frustrating. A respondent stated, “electricity is another impediment, since it’s not stable.” Although some students acknowledged that they were able to download study materials on time from the online platforms, they lamented the lack of orientation on the usage of the online platforms. For instance, one participant said, “we couldn’t have any orientation on how to engage in e-learning.” All of these challenges reveal the plight of students regarding online learning. 4.2The integral role of mobile technologies in mitigating the challenges of online learning The main themes that emerged under this category were social media education; communication pathways in using mobile devices; the cost-effective nature of mobile technologies; how mobile devices can be utilized for blended learning; the hampering nature of mobile devices on selfregulation; and creating an e-learning platform that is mobile friendly. Most of the participants agreed that social media was a space where they could access educational content in line with their programs of study. Some of the participants owned more than one mobile device on which all social media applications were installed. One participant expressed the following: I join several Facebook groups. Some of them has to do with education and even how to apply for further studies abroad. Sometimes, I get insight on some general concepts from some of 172 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 these groups. Also, sometimes when I don’t understand anything thought in class, I visit YouTube to watch videos. They are all helpful. The ubiquitous usage of social media platforms by university students can be used as an educational advantage, especially in this pandemic crisis where the sudden migration from conventional classroom teaching to online learning is fraught with challenges. Instructors can create educational groups, pages, or channels where students can receive education. Xue and Churchill (2020) found that social media platforms as educational tools can create a motivating environment for learners, serve as a place for resource sharing, and provide room for evaluation and feedback. Additionally, one affordance of mobile technologies is their use as a communicative tool. This feature of mobile devices was reiterated by some of the participants. It was observed that some of the students used their phones for text messaging and casual communications. For example, one participant said: “Oh, almost every day I chat with a lot of friends. Some are my course mates. But we talk about other things not necessarily about school. But there are times when my friends explain some parts of some lessons to me. I needed a brief explanation to write my exam. The statement is a testament to how mobile devices are often used as a communicative channel. As regards teaching and learning, updates on class sessions, course contents, and assignments can be shared in created groups/pages for educational purposes. With just a text or voice recordings, instructors are able to convey salient information to their students. As reviewed in the literature above, participants echoed the cost-effective nature of mobile technologies as opposed to laptops. Some of the participants believed that they could equally use their mobile devices to learn just like laptops: Sure! My Android phone has enough space to install many educational applications. If our school is ready to develop an application for us to learn and take quizzes there, I can use my phone to do that. Personally, I have answered some online quizzes on the Internet using my phone. An added advantage is the mobility and cost of mobile devices over laptops. The Government of Ghana can save money for other important educational projects by supplying mobile technologies for m-learning instead of laptops of which the cost far outweighs most mobile devices. The students also mentioned how mobile technologies could help in education delivery in case a blended mode of teaching and learning be adopted. In the first quarter of 2021, some public universities experimented on a Multi-Track Year-Round Education (MT-YRE) system, popularly known as the “double-track” system in Ghana. This approach separated the students into two groups: the first group had physical classroom teaching and were replaced by the second group of students who stayed at home during the academic year. This approach was adopted because of the lack of physical space in the universities. Some of the participants highlighted how mobile technologies could be used for blended learning where all groups of students learn, be it at home or on the school premises. One student opined: …[t]he double-track method was not effective for me. Sometimes, you are not able to get clarifications to all your questions. Supposing we use our mobile phones, the other group can also study online while we are here. This will at least reduce the pressure on us. Appropriately, blended learning is 80% online and 20% offline (Adarkwah, 2021c; Anthony et al., 2020). This means both groups of students experimented on in the MT-YRE system could learn concurrently instead of one group idling at home. In the current study, an ample number of the students did not shy away from the disruptive effect of mobile technologies. Some of the respondents acknowledged that mobile devices had the tendency to affect their self-regulation. In a typical case, one participant shared the following statement: 173 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 “Sometimes, when watching an educational video, you get notifications which can takes your mind from what you are learning. But I think we can still use our mobile phones to learn.” In integrating mobile technologies for m-learning, France et al.’s (2020) framework should be followed. This would help in enhancing the self-regulation of learners. Mobile technologies for learners can be customized in such a way that they support only educational applications with some added restriction on accessing some sites. Finally, students called for a mobile-friendly e-learning platform (learning management system). In the COVID-19-inspired online learning, some students experienced difficulties accessing the elearning system when there were assignments and exams. This is expressed in the response of one participant: Formerly, when we studied at home online, there were instances where the e-learning system will ‘jam’ (experience a glitch) when you are taking a quiz or uploading your assignment. Sometimes, you get anxious about your grade at the end of the semester. If we will use a mobile device to study, I suggest that the platform for course assignment and exam be one that works on the phone. It can be observed that the majority of the respondents believed mobile technologies for m-learning could be a pedagogical arsenal to battle “challenge-ridden” online learning in developing countries such as Ghana, Sub-Saharan African, and other developing economies. However, students were also concerned with the mode of implementation of mobile technologies. We believe that the framework of France et al. (2020) is tested and valid to promote m-learning. With the emergence of new COVID19 variants, integrating mobile technologies into education is an alternative to avert another disruption in education while avoiding the exacerbation of the spread of the virus through human contact. Mobile technologies for m-learning can be a crisis management tool against COVID-19 and subsequent emerging variants. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION This phenomenological qualitative inquiry sought to problematize online instruction in Ghana and present the integral role of mobile technologies in education. Findings from the study reveal that the relatively poor infrastructure of universities, the lack of ICT tools, inadequate internet accessibility and erratic electric power supply (called “dumsor” in Ghana), lack of proper orientation and glitches in the online platform negatively affected online instruction in Ghana. Hence, there is a clear need to introduce a novel and innovative method of instruction to replace or enhance traditional onsite instruction and foster online learning in Ghana. Mobile technologies can be used for both online and offline learning environments and have shown to be a positive predictor of student academic achievement. The qualitative inquiry attested that the students were eager to embrace m-learning. Specifically, they perceived integrating mobile technologies for m-learning as one way by which they could use their social media platforms for educational purposes, improve social interactions through effective communication, and foster blended learning. The use of mobile devices can be an innovative and cost-effective way to enhance learning through asynchronous and synchronous approaches to instruction. The supply of conventional laptop and desktop computers to teachers and students for online instruction can be a great challenge for developing countries like Ghana. To defray the cost of expensive laptops for online instruction, mobile devices such as cellphones and tablets can be used to achieve the same goal as indicated in the pedagogical framework for mobile learning. As students are mostly used to cellphones and other handheld devices, they would be comfortable to engage in online learning at any time and in any place due to the portability of said devices. Students would be able to listen to podcasts, watch videos, download presentations and access other instructional materials on their mobile devices. 174 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Potential setbacks such as reduction in self-regulation of learners and e-learning systems incompatible with mobile devices can be addressed during the stage of implementation. To this end, the researchers call on policymakers in educational institutions and other significant stakeholders to integrate mobile technologies in education in Ghana, especially in this COVID-19 pandemic era where the educational careers of most students are in jeopardy because they are unable to participate in the ongoing instruction. The researchers recommend that future researchers focus on teachers and students’ acceptance of or attitudes to mobile technologies for instruction and how they can be successfully implemented. Also, researchers can focus on the instructional methods and learning outcomes of mobile technologies. The abrupt shift to online learning presented a limitation to this study in that faculty and school administrators were too overwhelmed with work to share their useful insights into the experiences of online instruction and plans for adopting m-learning in their institutions. This, in turn, limits the generalizability of the study results. 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(2020) Educational affordances of mobile social media for language teaching and learning: a chinese teacher’s perspective, Computer Assisted Language Learning, DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2020.1765811 177 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 LECTURERS’ RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TRAINING AND SUPPORT CAN IMPROVE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BLENDED LEARNING IN A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION Jackalyn Appalsami The Independent Institute of Education, Varsity College Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth, South Africa (jackalyn.abrahams@gmail.com) Abstract The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost every sphere of our daily lives. Even businesses and educational institutions were forced to shut down so that the spread of the virus could be contained. To rescue the academic year, many higher education institutions (HEIs) made the switch to online learning. The sudden shift put immense pressure on the IT infrastructure and more importantly, on lecturers and students. Many lecturers were not equipped to teach and facilitate online learning and were unable to use a learning management system (LMS). In 2018, a study conducted on lecturers’ teaching strategies in the use of an LMS at an HEI made recommendations on how system training and support can improve teaching strategies through the implementation of a blended learning approach. A qualitative, exploratory single case study design was undertaken by conducting semi-standardised interviews, observations, and the analysis of log files. This article focuses on the responses from the interviews with lecturers regarding recommendations on training and support that are still relevant to this day. The results suggest that the promotion of training and lecturer support is beneficial; hence, blended learning in higher education will be better implemented, which will lead to an improvement in student performance and success. Keywords: learning management system (LMS), COVID-19 pandemic, blended learning INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many educational institutions to shut down and resort to online learning, as parents, teachers and children had to stay at home (Hung & Wati, 2020). The closure of schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) led to a loss of teaching time (Ramrathan, 2020). While some private schools and higher institutions could switch to online teaching and learning, many public schools did not have the infrastructure and capable staff to make the switch. Pete and Soko (2020) iterate that switching from face-to-face classes to online learning can be disruptive if the teachers, learners and school are not ready for it. The adoption of learning management systems (LMSs) in education has become a trend to facilitate the teaching and learning process in an online environment (Martin et al., 2010). Martin (2008) defines an LMS as online educational software that supports and manages teaching and learning material provided by the lecturer. Gani (2013) describes an LMS as a support tool to carry our administrative and academic tasks. Examples of academic tasks are providing access to learning material, hosting online assessments or activities, such as online tests, quizzes, and discussion forums or blogs (Gani, 2013). Examples of administrative tasks are providing automated or immediate feedback on assessments, tracking and monitoring of student activity on the LMS (Gani, 2013). However, there are many challenges that students and lecturers face when adopting an LMS, for example, they lack computer skills and skills for teaching with technology (AlBusaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010). In another study, Gani (2013) revealed that lecturers lacked experience in teaching with an LMS, which left them discouraged. Thus, it is necessary for lecturers to feel supported, well-trained and heard on how to improve training. 178 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 LITERATURE Need for training lecturers on an LMS Digital immigrants refer to people who were not born in the era of technology but then adopted technology into their lives (Prensky, 2001). Presently, teachers and instructors are considered digital immigrants, as they grew up without technology. The latter presents a problem since these digital immigrants must teach in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) where their students rely on technology in every part of their lives. For example, students in this era use the Internet to learn through videos, sound, and web 2.0 applications (Sharma, 2019). Educational tools such as LMS, school management systems and communication tools are used in education in the 4IR (Sharma, 2019). These instructors lack computer skills and knowledge on how to integrate technology in their teaching strategies (Al-Busaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010). Bervell and Umar (2020) express that the lack of LMS usage and online presence by instructors has resulted in a hindrance of successful online teaching and learning. Gani’s study revealed that instructors had time constraints on learning how to use an LMS (Gani, 2013). How to train lecturers on how to use an LMS In the 21st century, lecturers should be required to have the necessary competencies to teach online. Bates (2015) recommends that lecturers undergo training on how to use an LMS and strategies of teaching in a digital age. Furthermore, Bates (2015, p. 488) suggests that the following training be offered: The use of technology needs to be combined with an understanding of how students learn, how skills are developed, how knowledge is represented through different media and then processed, and how learners use different senses to learn. Bowen (2012) suggests that education institutions should focus on training lecturers on how to design learning experiences and how to make learning engaging for students. Educational institutions should employ education technologists to train lecturers on the technical aspects of using an LMS, but more importantly, training on how to design lessons must be emphasised so that blended learning can be better implemented (John & Wheeler, 2008). Desimone and Garet (2015) revealed in their study that teachers preferred individual support so that their training needs could be met. HEIs should provide IT support services to lecturers and students so that they can equip them with technical and pedagogical skills (Mtebe, 2015). Blended learning and LMS Harpur (2013) describes blended learning as a combination of face-to-face teaching and online teaching that are facilitated on online educational platforms. Blended learning is aimed at creating an effective learning environment by offering various modes of teaching (Harpur, 2013, p. 28). For example, face-to-face teaching and online teaching are offered. Blended learning allows for flexibility, as students can access the course material online anywhere, at any time (Protsiv et al., 2016). The use of technology in blended teaching and learning allows for traditional face-to-face teaching to continue (Grabinski et al., 2015). Many HEIs use LMSs to facilitate the blended teaching and learning approach (Makara et al., 1997). THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Garrison and Vaughan (2008) designed a framework to support lecturers and instructors on how to implement blended teaching and learning on an LMS. This framework is called Community of Inquiry (CoI) whereby the lecturer is expected to create a social, cognitive and teaching presence (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). Each presence is interdependent and they overlap with each other so that effective online teaching and learning is created. Garrison et al. (2000, p. 13) define social presence as “the ability of participants in a community of inquiry to project themselves socially and emotionally, as ‘real people’, through the medium of communication being used”. Thus, lecturers 179 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 need to create a safe and non-threatening environment so that students can feel free to express their ideas and opinions. Moreover, Garrison et al. (2000, p. 10) define cognitive presence as “the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse”. Lecturers must create and design opportunities on the LMS for students to develop critical thinking and an understanding of the content. Garrison and Arbaugh (2007) suggest that cognitive presence can be achieved by creating an opportunity for students to explore and apply content material through using LMS tools such as online tests, blogs, and discussion forums. Teacher presence is defined as the “design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realising personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes” (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007, p. 163). For example, lecturers can create a teaching presence by focusing on the design of their lesson and then continue through to the facilitation phase so that students can accomplish the learning outcomes of the lesson online (Vaughan, Cleveland-Innes, & Garrison, 2013). Aghili et al. (2014) suggest that a high level of teacher presence on an LMS makes communication between students and the content material easier, which, in turn, develops a better CoI. METHODS The researcher conducted an exploratory case study to achieve the aim of this study. The aim of this study was to impart the recommendations provided by lecturers on LMS training and support to improve the implementation of blended learning in an HEI. According to Luo (2011, p. 8), an “exploratory case study is used to explore situations in which the intervention being evaluated has no clear, single set of outcomes”. Such a case study is conducted within the sphere of the qualitative approach, which is defined by Creswell (2012) as an approach that allows one to explore the problem and gain an understanding from the participants. Seven participants were purposefully selected as they were defined by their participation in the LMS training and its implementation. A purposive sampling technique was adopted because the researcher worked at the research site and thus spoke to the relevant stakeholder to identify appropriate participants to partake in this study. These participants were lecturers who had started using an LMS for blending teaching and learning. The participants lectured in various disciplines. The data collection instruments used in this study were semi-standardised interviews. The researcher conducted the interviews in person. The use of semi-standard interviews was deemed appropriate for the study because predetermined questions were asked which were then followed up by relatable questions so that in-depth data could be acquired. The participants’ responses were audio-recorded and later transcribed for analysis. Consent was received from all the participants to audio-record the interview and take notes during the interview. Creswell (2012) suggests that inductive reasoning should be used when analysing qualitative data. Thus, the data were organised, and themes were identified. Measures of trustworthiness were promoted by adopting Lincoln and Guba’s strategies, namely credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability (Baxter & Jack, 2008, p. 555). The researcher ensured confidentiality and concealment of the participants personal details. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The findings revealed themes from the recommendations provided by the lecturers on how to improve LMS training and support. From discussions with the participants, some recommendations were made on how to improve the training and support offered on the LMS. The following themes emerged from the results, which are expanded further in the subheadings below. LMS training and support provided Training was provided on how to navigate the LMS and illustrate what LMS tools were available. The training was facilitated on campus and by an educational technologist. Participants shared that they had received technical support on how the LMS worked. However, one participant felt that 180 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 training was required on how to teach with the LMS. One of the participants felt that too much training was provided. Another participant felt that the training was overwhelming because she did not know which LMS tool to use. There were many workshops throughout the year on the LMS; however, one participant was unable to attend all the workshops, and this resulted in self-study on how to use the LMS independently. Some participants preferred one-on-one training so that specific training needs could be met. Training should be focused on subject-specific modules Participants expressed that they had received significant training on how to use the LMS; however, they would have appreciated subject-specific training on how to integrate lessons on the LMS more effectively. One participant suggested that training should be provided on what LMS tools to use when lecturing a theory module versus a numerical module. Support documentation should be provided after the training workshop One participant suggested that once training has been provided, it should be supplemented with additional resources – such as the recording of the training, or how-to guides, or user-friendly diagrams – so that lecturers could refer to these resources if they get stuck. Furthermore, the participant suggested that there should be a central online location to access these additional resources. It emerged from the recommendation that the participants wanted additional support documentation so that they could develop their competence in using the LMS. Training students on the LMS Another participant noted that training of lecturers was extensively provided, but training of students should be emphasised. For example, students should receive refresher workshops at the beginning of the first semester on how to use the LMS. In addition, training on how to download the LMS mobile application should be provided so that students could learn how to navigate the application on their smartphones. This would assist students to comfortably navigate the LMS and would, as a result, build student competence. Additional people should assist educational technologists One participant praised the educational technologist for providing how-to guides on how to use certain LMS tools after the workshops. However, another participant felt that the educational technologist was not easily accessible to support his needs. This participant recommended that an educational technologist should be available during lecture times so that they can freely assist if assistance is required. The aforementioned recommendation supports the work of Bates (2015, p. 499), who suggests that learning technology support units are necessary for effective training and support to be offered. Training on LMS for groupwork and peer assessments Another participant recommended that training should be provided on how to use group work and peer assessments on the LMS. This would enhance peer-to-peer learning and create a social presence on the LMS. Furthermore, training is requested on how to plan an entire lesson on the LMS. Garrison and Arbaugh (2007, p. 158) support this recommendation, as they suggest that for effective online learning to occur, the lecturer must design collaborative online activities. CONCLUSION The study was aimed at exploring how LMS training and support can improve the implementation of blended learning in higher education by considering recommendations by lecturers. From the results, the researcher could deduce that even though lecturers received extensive training on how to use an LMS, more training is required on how to integrate teaching strategies in blended learning with the use of an LMS. 181 NOMSA Open Up and Connect 2021 Mhlanga and Moloi (2020, p. 4) assert the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a “motivating factor towards digital transformation in the education sector during the lockdown”. The pandemic caught the world off guard, as many education institutions and lecturers had to make the sudden shift to online. Thus, education institutions need to be proactive and train lecturers on how to adapt to such unforeseen changes. On the other hand, Bates (2015) suggests that personal professional development should be emphasised. For example, lecturers must upskill themselves in learning technologies and skills required to teach online (Bates, 2015). Van Der Merwe et al. 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