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The Institute for Open Distance Learning makes Unisa shine beyond borders
The 57th Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA) conference recently took place at Manna Resort, Zimbabwe. The conference brings together academics and experts in distance education within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Unisa is a member of DEASA and has always played a critical role in open distance learning (ODL) capacity-building and policy development. The Honourable Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Development, Prof Amon Murwira, formally opened the conference. Murwira, a full professor in aerospace earth observation, satellite remote sensing, geographic information science and global satellite navigation systems, congratulated DEASA for maintaining its scholarly reputation for the last 57 years. He also cautioned the conference participants against always responding to events and called on them to focus on proactively developing African context-based solutions.
Murwira impressed the participants with the importance of learning and appreciating their heritage, and using it to create sustainable futures. He said: "A heritage-based philosophy should be the basis of trade instead of trying to survive by importing unaffordable already produced solutions that do not give a competitive advantage." He urged academics to refrain from doing research for the sake of it but to think of the public good, like ensuring that their research contributes towards alleviating food insecurity and other challenges.
The Vice-Chancellor of the Zimbabwe Open University, Prof Paul Henry Gundani, and the DEASA Chairperson, Prof Sindile Ngubane of the Institute for Open Distance Learning (IODL), set the tone for the conference. They both stressed the importance of DEASA member countries using the space to network and create collaborative research projects to solve the SADC’s problems. In his keynote speech, Prof Elfas Bisanda, the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania, thanked Covid-19 for fast-tracking the adoption of online learning, assessment and student support. He said that though many people sadly lost their loved ones, the ODL institutions are now taken seriously because their mode of teaching, which contact universities always doubted, became the default mode of delivery, hence removing the notion of ODL being low quality.
The IODL, whose mandate is to enhance the research capacity of open distance e-learning (OdeL) researchers, presented a research workshop to the conference delegates. Prof Jenny Roberts gave a presentation on the trends in ODL research under the institute’s searchlight research support programme, which is led by Dr Nathi Zongozzi. Most delegates appreciated the ODL workshop conducted by the IODL in the plenary and requested more workshops. The IODL staff continue representing Unisa on distance education platforms and have committed themselves to transforming the field. Nationally, Dr Kelly Young and Prof Sindile Ngubane have been co-opted into the National Association of Distance Education Organisations of South Africa (NADEOSA). Zongozzi has been appointed to serve as the DEASA country representative for South Africa.
The IODL has committed to making Unisa visible on ODL platforms where Unisa is a member. The institute has planned a writing retreat to support authors whose abstracts have been accepted for the upcoming International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) in Costa Rica.
#Unisa150
* By Prof Sindile Ngubane, CEDU-Head: Institute for Open Distance Learning
Publish date: 2023/11/03
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