Unleashing the Potential of Education through Innovation

BY: .

Unleashing new and creative approaches to enhancing teaching and learning in Higher Education was high on the agenda at the inaugural Innovations in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (iSoTL) Conference held at the Maharani Hotel in Durban.

The hybrid conference, hosted by UKZN’s Teaching and Learning Office (UTLO), provided a platform for academics to reflect on teaching and learning strategies and approaches, with particular emphasis on innovations in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

In his welcome address, Professor Sandile Songca, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, outlined Professor Peter Felten’s five principles of good practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning and espoused the importance of building relationships with students. ‘Student learning is paramount - the knowledge we create is secondary,’ said Songca.

Keynote speaker Professor Jin Kuwata, a lecturer in the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design Program at Teachers College at Columbia University, explored problem-solving challenges in his presentation titled Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education.

Kuwata suggested viewing interactions with AI as a collaborative experience and AI as an interactive partner to resolve the ‘notion of us versus the machine - an antagonistic kind of relationship.’

He underscored that utilising argumentation in AI can assist students. ‘It’s through interacting with ChatGPT, with infinite patience, that students get their ideas out. It reveals the holes in your logic - it reveals the gaps in your connections, and it challenges you to have to think from another perspective since now somebody is challenging the notion of what you think you understood.’

He posed the question, ‘How can we use AI to gain insights that we couldn’t see before?’ and emphasised the need to spend time solving problems that are ‘meaningful and that matter to us.’

Ms Trine Jensen, Manager of Digital Transformation and Higher Education for the International Association of Universities (IAU), delivered a keynote address titled: Teaching and Learning in a Rapidly Transforming World.

Jensen explored normative trends and commitments at the global level, realities at the institutional level, generative AI and the IAU’s response. She referenced research done by the IAU and emphasised the importance of academic integrity and ethical conduct.

A panel discussion chaired by Mr Abdulbaqi Badru, a Technology Consultant in the Teaching and Learning Division, probed how purposeful design transforms learning environments, curricula, and technology integration. The panel members included Kuwata; Professor Ruth Hoskins, College of Humanities Dean of Teaching and Learning; Mr Khumbulani Mngadi, Acting Director of the University Language Development and Planning Office; and Mrs Ishana Gangaram, an Instructional Designer in the College of Health Science.

Abstracts presented included Competencies of the “New” Vocational School Teacher by Professor Beata Pitula and The Role of Universities in Promoting and Supporting the Human Rights Jurisprudence in South Africa: Exploring a Student-centric Approach by Ms Nomfundo Mthembu.

Underscoring UTLO’s commitment to student-centredness, Student Voices: Learning in the Digital Age gave a glimpse into some of the intervention’s students would put in place were they teachers in the digital age. The three winners from a competition held earlier in the year, Miss Kelisha Pandaram, Miss Nompumelelo Tembe, and Mr Thabo Mbambo, were announced, each winning a tablet.

UKZN’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Professor Rubby Dhunpath, applauded the presentations delivered at the conference. ‘I daresay the AI sceptics amongst us will have to reconsider our cynicism and suspicion. The takeaway for me is that the possibilities, potentialities and hazards of AI have been demonstrated. I think the most profound benefit of AI is its ability to provoke us to think and act from different perspectives which we might not have considered, and which delivers profound outcomes.’

During the networking session, conference participants were exposed to 9D virtual reality technology towards sparking the adoption of virtual and augmented reality in teaching and learning.

Words: Raylene Captain-Hasthibeer

Photographs: Albert Hirasen