Robust discussions were captured on Teaching & Learning TV. Teaching & Learning TV Making an Impact
A growing demand facing organisers of academic conferences is to make relevant and contemporary conversations which take place at the events available to a wider academic audience.
In responding to these demands, the UKZN Teaching & Learning Office (UTLO) premiered Teaching & Learning TV at the Annual Teaching & Learning in Higher Education Conference in 2014. This initiative aimed to harness the power of video to facilitate discussion and to generate critical debates around teaching and learning and Higher Education research.
Many of the Teaching & Learning TV sessions available through UTLO’s YouTube channel were produced at Teaching & Learning Conferences and include conference keynote addresses, workshops presentations and panel sessions.
Anchored by Professor Sarojini Nadar of the School of Religion, Philosophy & Classics, the sessions feature in-depth discussions with keynote speakers and academics both from within and outside UKZN.
Since its inception, the YouTube channel has racked up more than 8 500 hits with notable interest from viewers in South Africa, the United States of America, India, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The Director for Teaching & Learning, Dr Rubby Dhunpath, indicated that following the success of Teaching & Learning TV, the organising committee was re-thinking the format of the Conference. ‘The 10th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference will be quite different from what we have experienced in the past. We’ve coined the phrase the “flipped conference”,’said Dhunpath.
At future conferences, the question of ‘what is not being said?’ will be posed to delegates. The subsequent discussions will adopt the form of panel discussions in front of a live audience, with participation from delegates. This conference format will be gradually introduced over the next few years. ‘Part of our agenda is to profile a wider range of academic voices in critical dialogues with leading scholars,’ said Dhunpath.
In addition to videos produced from the Conference, UTLO features alternative presentation formats through seminars, colloquia and workshops, produced throughout the year, and recorded on YouTube videos. ‘You might say that this is UKZN’s contribution to MOOCs (massive open online course),’ said Dhunpath.
Teaching & Learning TV is produced by Mr Ebrahim Adam who is a research intern at UTLO and a Masters in IS&T student at UKZN. ‘Teaching & Learning TV allows us to harness the combined power of video and social media to extend the reach of thought-leadership offered by prominent academics around teaching and learning, while also showcasing our own talent,’ said Adam.
Videos featuring keynote speakers and panelists from the 9th Annual Teaching & Learning in Higher Education Conference will be uploaded this month.
Staff, students and members of the public are encouraged to subscribe to the Teaching & Learning TV channel on YouTube at www.youtube.com/utlotv for notification of when videos are uploaded.
- Raylene Captain-Hasthibeer and Ebrahim Adam