Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Technology

Purpose

The primary purpose of this qualification is to provide potential or practicing teachers, lecturers and corporate trainers with the opportunity to understand the evolution of technology in education and identify ways in which the affordances of emerging technologies can be harnessed to respond to challenges in the 21st Century education globally and within Africa in order to critically engage in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of educational technologies in various contexts.

Rationale

Globally, universities are having to respond to vastly increasing demand for access to higher education and are under pressure to become more efficient due to the increasing costs. Universities are also being challenged to provide quality education to an ever-broadening range of students with various levels of competence who need flexible learning options due to their geographic location, employment or living conditions. One of the ways in which publicly- and privately-funded higher education institutions are endeavouring to respond to these demands is by employing an array of information communication technologies (ICTs) to support and enhance teaching and learning activities.

As the range of ICTs increases, the price of various devices decreases and connectivity expands and becomes cheaper. This leads to the increased potential for using ICTs in teaching and learning. Students around the world have almost ubiquitous access to mobile phones and to a range of other devices such as smart phones, e-book readers and tablets, as well as to web-based social media platforms and complex web-based applications hosted on a cloud, which means easier access to information and online activities by students, irrespective of geographical location, employment or living conditions. In Africa there is increasing access to mobile phones, including smart phones which provide an opportunity for online teaching and learning activities if properly designed.

The challenge, however, lies in the appropriate pedagogical use of these ICTs and specifically the knowledge and skills of higher education lecturers to devise apt online activities to optimise the affordances provided by the ICTs. Merely uploading a set of lecture notes online is not good pedagogy. Lecturers need to be aware of the range of re-usable materials, i.e. open educational resources (OER), which could be re-purposed for their particular courses. They also need to have mastered a range of technical skills and have developed online learning design skills to maximise the use of ICTs for teaching and learning. The purpose is, therefore, to deepen knowledge of the use and applications of ICTs in education and to enable students to reflect on their current and future practice.

Unfortunately the knowledge and skills required to take full advantage of the range of ICTs to which their students have access is not as prevalent as it needs to be. With over-crowded lecture halls and in the face of many institutional and capacity constraints, lecturers and educational technologists have to possess a sophisticated set of pedagogical and technical skills to exploit opportunities and often find solutions through a drawn-out process of trial and error.

A formal qualification to help to fast-track their knowledge and skills development is ideal for the purpose.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Experience of working in educational technology, training or e-Learning will be a strong recommendation.

Candidates wishing to gain Recognition of Prior Learning will need to submit a detailed application that includes the following:

• A motivation/justification for admission to the programme.
• Details of relevant work experience, highlighting skills that would be an advantage in the programme.
• Leadership positions held or potential for this.
• Evidence of writing skills or involvement with the offering of training.
• An analysis of his/her strengths and limitations, and how the applicant intends to address these in the programme.
• Any other proof (not mentioned above) that the applicant would like to offer in order to indicate that he/she should be considered for admission to this programme.

Entry Requirements

The qualification is open to any learner in possession of a

• Bachelor's Degree.

Or

• Advanced Diploma at NQF Level 7.

The qualification consists of four compulsory modules with 30 credits each at NQF Level 8, totalling 120 Credits.

Modules

• Emerging Technologies in Education.
• Research and Evaluation of Emerging Technologies.
• Online Learning Design.
• Learning, Teaching and Emerging Technologies.

1. Understand the evolution of technology in education and critically appraise the implementation of educational technologies in various contexts to identify ways in which the affordances of emerging technologies can be harnessed to respond to challenges in the 21st Century education, globally and within Africa.
2. Understand key theories of learning and pedagogy to establish how learners might best engage with various tasks and justify why and in what ways specific teaching strategies and emerging technologies might best support learning.
3. Understand various online learning design models to design, develop and formatively evaluate an online learning prototype and justify and reflect upon this process in an electronic portfolio.
4. Engage with global and African research and critically appraise research and evaluation strategies adopted in order to evaluate the implementation of online learning in a specific context and effectively communicate the findings in a publically available online site.

• The challenges facing education in the 21st Century are identified.
• The evolution of technology in education globally and within Africa is reviewed.
• The affordances of educational technologies are classified.
• The influence of multi-layered contexts on the implementation of educational technologies is critically examined.
• Ways in which the adoption of emerging technologies can respond to challenges in 21st Century education are identified.
• Theories of learning from the psychological and sociological literature are critically reviewed.
• Theories of pedagogy from the educational literature are critically reviewed.
• Practical examples of emerging technologies used in support of learning are critically appraised.
• How researchers have explained the theories of learning, pedagogy and technology affordance underpinning the use of educational technologies are critically examined.
• Various online learning design models by making their underlying psycho-social learning theories, pedagogical theories and online learning design strategies explicit, are critically appraised.
• A prototype online learning intervention that passes through all the phases of design and a flowchart of the activities is designed and developed.
• The process of the phases of design in an electronic portfolio is documented and justified.
• The activities and processes in learning about online learning design in an electronic portfolio are critically reflected on.
• Global and African educational technology research is critically appraised and the various research and evaluation strategies adopted are examined.
• The link between theory and practice in the implementation of educational technologies is identified.
• A small-scale evaluation of the implementation of online learning in a specific context is conducted.
• The information available online is analysed and the findings on how these relate to studies in Global and African contexts are effectively communicated.

Integrated Assessment

Assessment will occur on a continuous basis. There will be no final examination. Students will be assessed based on course work, (which includes a range of activities such as group work, blogs, wikis, and presentations). Each module has a written assignment which students undertake individually.