This will guarantee student-lecturer success to some extent. With these skills they are also guided to assess their arguments to defend their reasoning. We as lecturers need to constructively assist students to acquire these skills with which they are constantly being challenged to invest in quantitative reasoning and higher-order thinking skills. “Students also need to change their mindset, as they need to instinctively focus on self-regulated learning skills. In contrast, she adds, the distance classroom is a very lonely place for lecturer and student alike, and this new “virtual” space can be like opening Pandora’s Box, as the feeling of isolation may be overwhelming for the lecturer. This opens up new possibilities that are quite different from the face-to-face classroom sessions in which students provided energy to the way we teach. More than ever before, the value of language, collaboration and interactions directly contributes to the active role of learning. “This awareness creates a social presence that urges us to include each and every student’s personality and background.” That being said, lecturers’ constructivist thinking further builds on connectivism, social constructivism and socio-culturalism, according to Dr Mouton. Within our newly created environment, the student-technology-lecturer role constructively created a cognitive presence that is grounded in many forms of communication.” Now we find ourselves in a world in which we are in a mega-paced, technological environment in which constructivism gains new and more meaning.

The days when lecturers could focus only on lecturing have passed. Now we can fearlessly introduce new technologies in our online endeavour. “From a Business School perspective, this is a new, bumpy road with potential. “Let’s change it to the C of vision, of possibility, of new strategic thinking in a new ‘abnormal’ world, which suddenly became the new normal. This C suddenly does not remind us of the summer holidays, but rather fills us with a new fear that we have never encountered before.ĭr Nelda Mouton, an educationalist at the Business School of the North-West University (NWU) with extensive experience in education issues, makes a few suggestions. Who could have guessed that distance education would be the compass of 2020! This is not only the alley for students and lecturers alike, but it opened up new horizons with unending possibilities and ongoing potential in the world of technological communication.Ĭovid-19 is the new buzz word, and within days the big C became the topic of many (if not all) conversations. Technology Transfer and Innovation Support.Student Academic Lifecycle Administration.

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