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Mangosuthu University of Technology Annual Report

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in the TLDC coordinated a number of staff development

workshops. These workshops include E-learning seminar,

Assessment in Higher Education, Pedagogical Training,

Learning Materials Development, and MUT First Year

Experience Consultative Workshop (FYE).

These initiatives help to capacitate academics in improving

their teaching practices, and TLDC hopes they will go a

long way in inducting and capacitating the academics

participating in the NewGeneration Academic Programme

(nGAP). The nGAP is a Department of Higher Education

programme which aims at attracting and supporting the

new generation of academics in South Africa. At MUT,

the coordination of the nGAP is the responsibility of the

TLDC and it is delegated to the TPDU. In 2015 the TPDU

successfully led the coordination of the hiring of the nGAP

scholars and all the posts allocated to MUT were filled.

The first ever e-Learning Seminar took place on the 17th

of September 2015. Its focus was to explore possible

approaches to the use of online educational resources at

MUT. Dr Arno Louw, an esteemed researcher in E-learning

from the University of Johannesburg was invited as guest

speaker. The seminar also included reflections from MUT

staff members who were active in using blended learning.

The seminar proved to be a resounding success with an

attendance of approximately 60 academics and academic

support staff members. Subsequently, the project of the

long awaited installation of Smart Classrooms started

in earnest in October 2015 to support the teaching and

learning using the eLearning platforms. This was a pilot

project which saw nine classrooms being configured to be

smart classrooms.

On the 27 March 2015 the TLDC hosted the FYE

Consultative Workshop which took place at the Coastlands

Hotel in Musgrave. FYE have progressively gained a

strong position in South African Higher Education over

the past three years. This is due to global recognition

of the success of the concept in improving retention and

throughput rates in higher education. Mrs Motsabi, the

FYE Coordinator from University of Johannesburg skilfully

facilitated the workshop.

Apart from the workshops and seminars, the TLDC

continued to provide the coordination of the Postgraduate

Diploma in Higher Education (PGDHE) which is offered to

academics through Rhodes University and University of

KwaZulu-Natal. In 2015 eleven academic staff members

completed the PGDHE whilst nine enrolled for the

2015/16 academic year. According to the reflection

reports the participants indicated that the programme

has empowered them with the skills and knowledge they

needed in their own respective disciplines.

Student Development and Support Initiatives

The TLDC continues to facilitate student support initiatives

which is a housed mainly in its two units, i.e. Academic

Literacy and Language (ALLU) unit and Mathematics and

Science Education Unit (MSEU). A number of student

development and support initiatives was undertaken

in the 2015 academic year and are summarized per unit

below:

Mathematics and Science Education Unit (Mseu)

The MSEU discharged the following activities in pursuit of

student development and support:

• The development of a new tutorial manual in a

similar fashion to the material for the Numeracy and

Quantitative Skills Development course for Maths

I. This tutorial manual will supplement the existing

study material and will be undergoing further

reviews in its adoption through the TLDC Material

Development initiative.

• The coordination of the Mentorship Programme

which was successfully run across seven-

programmes in six departments, i.e. Civil

Engineering and Survey; Chemical Engineering;

Chemistry; Agriculture; Nature Conservation and

Mechanical Engineering. The mentorship activities

help to establish the programme as an integral part

of the interventions required for academic support.

• The establishment of the collaboration with SA

Women Engineering programme. This initiative

resulted in MUT participating at the Girl Engineering

Information Session held at UKZN on the 9th of

May 2015. This programme is meant to mentor and

support female students in the Engineering field

nationwide.

• The recruitment of new tutors to replace those who

went for in-service training was taken care of. These

new recruits had Master’s degree and some were

pursuing PhDs in their disciplines. With this, MUT

students stood a change to benefit enormously

from the knowledge and experience of these newly

recruits.

• The continuous identification of at-risk students

using the Higher Education Data Analyzer (HEDA).

HEDA generates data and reports which informs

the monitoring and the support of at-risk students.

• The coordination of the Test of Academic Literacy

Levels (TALL) in the first semester of 2015. Profiling

test. The TALL was administered to first-time

entering students, and was customised to assess

both the academic literacy and basic numeracy

skills. It was administered successfully by the

ICELDA team in collaboration with MUT colleagues

to a cohort of students in February 2015.

Academic Literacy and Language (Allu)

ALLU discharged the following activities in pursuit of

student development and support: