Saide Current Awareness
03 June 2024

 

Distance Education

  • What distance learning students want from an AI Digital Assistant Source: Distance Education The authors of this study examined the perceptions of ten online and distance learning students from diverse disciplines regarding the design of a hypothetical AI Digital Assistant (AIDA). In the first step, they captured students’ perceptions via interviews, while the second step supported the triangulation of data by enabling students to share, compare, and contrast perceptions with those of peers. All participants agreed on the usefulness of such an AI tool while studying and reported benefits from using it for real-time assistance and query resolution, support for academic tasks, personalization and accessibility, together with emotional and social support. Students concerns related to the ethical and social implications of implementing AIDA, data privacy and data use, operational challenges, academic integrity and misuse, and the future of education. Implications for the design of AI-tailored systems are also discussed.
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  • Modular Distance Learning In English: Challenges And Strategies Of Students And Parents Source: Educational Administration: Theory and Practice The purpose of the study was to describe and identify the difficulties and methods that parents and students faced when learning English through modular distance learning. This study used a concurrent mixed-methods research design, which enables both qualitative and quantitative investigations to address the issue. Out of the 150 children and their parents who participated in the quantitative study, only seven were used in the qualitative investigation. The pupils' challenges included not understanding the module, running out of time due to the abundance of tasks, finding the work boring, not having enough guidance, taking too long, and not having parents available to assist their children, according to the findings.Conversely, parents found it difficult to assist their children in learning English due to a variety of factors, including their own workload, time constraints, their children's limited comprehension of the modules, language barriers, and the length of the modules. The pupils frequently used the following strategies: spending additional time to comprehend and respond to the modules; asking family members for help; utilizing dictionaries and other references; exploring the internet; and using models. Similar to this, the parents used the following strategies to aid their children's English learning during the modular distance learning: putting the education of their children ahead of other tasks, being self-prepared, providing internet access for research, asking for help from family members, using dictionaries and references, proper scheduling, and offering rewards.

 

   Education: South Africa

 

Language, Literacies and Research Writing

  • Stories of success — how Book Dash is reimagining publishing to get South African children reading Source: Daily Maverick About two-thirds of homes with young children have no children’s books. The social impact publisher will print a whopping 609,000 kids’ books this month.
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  • New reading platform makes reading in Afrikaans fun for school kids Source: BizCommunity Oxford University Press South Africa (OUPSA) has launched its Afrikaans library for Oxford Reading Buddy – which like its English counterpart – aims to boost comprehension skills by making reading fun and interactive. Children can choose their own reading buddy, who will be their virtual friend to make the process of learning essential comprehension skills more enjoyable and engaging.
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  • Two academics launch Setswana dictionary of personal names Source: University World News In a move that has earned them praise from other academics in the linguistics fraternity, two lecturers from the University of Botswana’s humanities faculty have published a dictionary of Setswana first names – the first of its kind in the Southern African region, according to Dr Goabilwe Nnanishie Ramaeba, one of the authors.

 

Open Access, Open Education and Open Educational Resources

  • Teaching AI Ethics Source: LibreTexts Commons An OER by Leon Furze on his collection of articles with each of the original articles, now a chapter in the online text, and the entire collection available for download as a PDF book. The book covers the nine areas of ethical concern, viz. Bias and Discrimination; Environmental concerns; Truth and academic integrity, Copyright, Privacy, Datafication, Affect (emotion) recognition,Human labour, Power 

 

   Post Schooling

  • New University of Cape Town VC believes in the power of people Source: University World News The University of Cape Town (UCT), Africa’s top-ranked higher education institution, has just appointed Professor Mosa Moshabela as its new vice-chancellor (VC) with effect from 1 October 2024.
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  • Conference to tackle use of race in SA scholarship Source: The Daily Maverick  What are academic disciplines teaching about race, and do research practices in South Africa support problematic uses of race and other human categorisations in science? These are some of the questions under the microscope at an upcoming conference that tackles the use of race and other forms of human categorisation in South African scholarship. The conference, hosted by Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Committee for the Institutional Response to the [Khampepe] Commission’s Recommendations (CIRCoRe), aims to interrogate the use of questionable – and possibly antiquated – human descriptors in science that may perpetuate scientific racism in South Africa.
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  • NSFAS boss Freeman Nomvalo promises fresh processes and payment system by September Source: Daily Maverick NSFAS administrator Freeman Nomvalo says there are plans to review student allowance and accommodation payment processes to avoid campus disruptions.
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  • A new breed — the thinking behind building a new medical school in North West Source: The Daily Maverick A new medical school that is set to open for learning in 2028 will aim to help trainee doctors better understand the complexities of practising medicine in rural areas.
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  • Eduvos embraces AI to shape the future of higher education Source: Biz Community As the world embraces the transformative power of technology, Eduvos, a leading private higher education institution in South Africa, is proactively harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to equip students with the skills and expertise needed to thrive and meet the demands of the future workforce.
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  • Beyond neoliberal policies: Blind spots in the Staffing South Africa’s Universities Framework Source: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa The author, Mlamuli N. Hlatshwayo, writes, " Attracting the next generation of academics is important for ensuring that the higher education system is sustainable and continues to produce the much-needed graduates who will respond to the growing needs of the knowledge economy. Deeply rooted in the decolonial and transformation struggles in the Global South, academic staffing and recruitment questions are central to representation and diversity in the academy. In this article, I critique what I see as the rising neoliberal logic in South African higher education that frames national thinking and policies on attracting and retaining the next generation of academics in the country. While some policies and legislative frameworks have been proposed in response to this challenge, I particularly focus on the Staffing South Africa’s Universities Framework (SSAUF) which has served as an integrated policy framework that guides the country’s vision on attracting, retaining and supporting the next generation of scholars. I especially reveal three interconnected and intersectional blind spots that are prevalent in the policy, i.e. (1) the misframed and misrecognised conceptual understanding of early career academics and emerging scholars, (2) the lack of systemic and adequate pathways for postdoctoral research fellows to access higher education as permanent staff members and (3) the ideological (and decolonial) missed opportunities in the policy. Transdisciplinary contribution: I provide an interdisciplinary critique of ways in which the higher education policy is socially constructed and enacted in the academe, and the glaring blind spots that have real and material implications for early career scholars in South Africa.
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  • Quality and diversity: the main challenges facing higher education Source: University World News The 21st century has already experienced an accelerated growth and global expansion of higher education. The gross enrolment ratio (GER) doubled from 19% to 38% between 2000 and 2018. The sector experienced an average annual increase of around 6.5 million students in the first two decades of this century against an increase of 2.45 million students between 1980 and 2000.

 

Skills and Employment

  • Bridging the digital divide to fight youth unemployment Source: ITWeb Exploring how Digital Solutions Foundry has become a key partner in Harambee’s fight against youth unemployment.
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  • Microsoft Commits $70 Million to Boost Employment and AI Development in South Africa Source:TechInAfrica  Microsoft South Africa is committing R1.3 billion ($70 million) to the South African economy under a 10-year agreement with the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC). According to the tech giant, this investment aims to support the growth of small, micro, and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs), generate local employment opportunities, and gear the nation up for AI transformation. The initiative is anticipated to enhance the country’s AI sector, which is expected to reach a value of US$0.90 billion in 2024 and grow at an annual rate of 28.22% (CAGR 2024-2030), culminating in a market volume of US$4.00 billion by 2030.
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  • Jobs, law and order top of what people want for Mzansi Source: Sowetan Employment, eradication of crime, equality and access to land are top of mind for some citizens, who shared their motivation to cast their votes in the 2024 elections.
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  • When AI takes all of the jobs, who will pay our taxes? Source: Daily Maverick About 80% of state taxes come from individuals and payroll taxes. Only about 7% comes from corporate tax. And, if there are no taxes to be scooped into the fiscus, how is the government going to provide services for its citizens?

 

Teaching and Learning: Local and Global

  • Effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom Teaching and Learning Method Among Underachievers in Physiology: Experience From a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital Source: Cureus Traditional classroom teaching involves a process where knowledge is disseminated to students by the teachers through a one-way process. Such a learning environment makes students passive and muted, which can be improved by alternative teaching and learning (TL) methods like the flipped classroom (FC) technique. The FC approach involves a student-inclusive TL process. FC is a student-centered approach that benefits teachers and students by emphasizing the key information during the learning process. The present study aimed to understand the efficacy of the FC TL method and evaluate students' perception of FC among underachieving first-year medical students in learning physiology.
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  • Top 10 African Countries with the Best Education Systems Source: ZimbabweMail "According to Bscholarly and ExamLabs, here are the top 10 African countries with the best education systems. The rankings consider the general skill level of the workforce and the quantity and quality of education in each country. Key factors include digital literacy, interpersonal skills, and critical and creative thinking. In this context, services like EssayPro can be invaluable, providing students with guidance to navigate their studies and enhance their learning experience."

 

Technology-Enhanced Learning

  • War of the Hybrid Worlds 2024: Going Where We've Never Gone Before Source: CampusTech The global pandemic thrust online teaching to the forefront. Online enrollments rose while campus enrollments declined. Is face-to-face teaching doomed? Will virtual campuses be the norm? Is there no middle ground?
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  • Introducing ChatGPT Edu Source: OpenAI "We're announcing ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT built for universities to responsibly deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and campus operations. Powered by GPT-4o, ChatGPT Edu can reason across text and vision and use advanced tools such as data analysis. This new offering includes enterprise-level security and controls and is affordable for educational institutions. "
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  • The New ChatGPT Offers a Lesson in A.I. Hype Source: New York Times OpenAI released GPT-4o, its latest chatbot technology, in a partly finished state. It has much to prove.
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  • 2024 EDUCAUSE Action Plan: AI Policies and Guidelines Source: Educause EDUCAUSE's 2024 AI Landscape Study, based on a survey of more than 900 higher education technology professionals, made clear the current gaps in higher education's AI-related policies and guidelines: "Only 23% of respondents indicated that their institution has any AI-related acceptable use policies already in place, and nearly half (48%) of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that their institution has appropriate policies and guidelines in place to enable ethical and effective decision-making about AI use."
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  • Europe, universities and industry launch Emotion AI masters Source: University World News A masters in Emotion AI – an emerging subset of artificial intelligence that interprets and responds to human emotions – kicks off next year across eight universities in six European countries. The masters is blended and transdisciplinary, at the cutting edge of applied AI and will spin off modules for mass AI upskilling.
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  • Artificial intelligence: Ethical challenges for research Source: University World News Recent and ongoing developments in artificial intelligence cause worries and uncertainty. At the moment, large language models (LLMs) get the most attention, as they are widely distributed and able to do what is traditionally considered intellectual work.
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  • Humans plus AI detectors can catch AI-generated academic writing Source: University World News Specific artificial intelligence content detectors and experienced human reviewers can accurately identify AI-generated academic articles, even after paraphrasing, upholding academic integrity in scientific publishing. This is the main message that emerged from a study titled “The Great Detectives: Humans versus AI detectors in catching large language model-generated medical writing”, published in the International Journal for Educational Integrity on 20 May.