Leveraging Student Engagement through MS Teams at an Open and Distance E-learning Institution

The current paper reports on a study that was conducted at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2021. The study involved three cohorts of undergraduate students (n = 20, n = 12 and n = 18), where each cohort participated in one of the virtual sessions offered on MS Teams as part of their modules’ virtual classes. Employing a case study research design, the study used the interactions students had on MS Teams through messages in each session to determine how such messages served as indicators of student engagement. Four student engagement dimensions, namely emotional, behavioral, cognitive and academic engagement, were the focus of this study. Two of the findings of this study are: (a) only few students dominated the messages posted during the three live virtual sessions; and (b) cognitive and emotional engagement dimensions were the two predominant dimensions of student engagement. The paper ends with the implications and recommendations

English studies: Decolonisation, deparochialising knowledge and the null curriculum

This paper reports on a desktop review study of undergraduate and postgraduate English studies (both English literature and English language) module offerings (n = 48) of 24 English departments at 17 South African higher education institutions (HEIs) conducted in 2017. The review focused on the presence and purpose of the term, decolonisation, in these module offerings. Framed within deparochialism and a null curriculum, and employing purposeful sampling and explicit inclusion criteria common in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the study has the following findings: (a) decolonisation has a presence in only three undergraduate module offerings and it is mentioned in only one honours module offering among the 48 module offerings reviewed. (b) All four modules are English literature modules; (c) decolonisation is a module thematic or topical component and is used for critical analytical purposes in the identified modules in varying degrees. (d) In the three undergraduate modules, decolonisation is restricted to African literature or Africa writings and (e) in the postgraduate module, decolonisation is offered as one of the four optional stand-alone modules. Finally, the paper argues for a decolonisation that deparochialises the disciplines of English studies

Language learning interventions

The writers of this article set out to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of a number of language learning interventions with students who failed a Senate discretionary access module designed to address the articulation gap between schooling and university. The article discusses various reasons for student failure despite language interventions. The students discussed in the first part of the article all visited the lecturers in the English for Specific Purposes Unit on more than one occasion for personal consultations. At these contact sessions, students were encouraged to make use of a number of language, reading and writing interventions within the system. Their use was optional and most of the students in the study did not avail themselves of the opportunities presented. On reflection, the conclusion reached by the lecturers was that students did not understand the amount of time that they needed to invest in their language development to be successful and to overcome the combined effects of previous experience and fossilization. They therefore applied to the university Senate to change the module from a semester to a year model to enable them, through a compulsory assignment system, to force students to put in the hours necessary to succeed. The results for that intervention show that the hypothesis was correct and students need more time and structure if they are to improve their language competence sufficiently.Keywords: language learning interventions, English for specific purposes, language competence, fossilizationJournal for Language Teaching Vol. 39(1) 2005: 114-13

Reading comprehension in high-poverty schools: How should it be taught and how well does it work?

This article describes and appraises a reading comprehension programme that was aimed at Grade 6 learners and teachers and implemented in different ways in two high poverty primary schools where reading levels were very low. The programme was implemented during formal school hours at the one school, while it was offered after school as a voluntary afternoon activity at the other school. Because attendance of the voluntary programme was generally poor, the latter school served as a control site. The results of the comprehension programme for the learners’ reading abilities in their home language, Northern Sotho, and in English are reported. On the basis of these findings, we evaluate the programme and identify ‘lessons learned’ from its implementation that may have relevance for future reading comprehension interventions

Moodle in an Open Distance e-Learning University: Is It a Building or Stumbling Block to Student Interaction and Autonomy?

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Africa are seemingly staggering under the burden of digital division and exclusion. Due to its perceived flexibility and affordability for students in remote areas, distance education is a popular option for many students at HEIs. One of the e-learning tools introduced is a modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (Moodle) learning management system (LMS), which is designed using web-based applications and provides online learning services to students. The key question remains: how do firstyear students experience Moodle? Do they view it as a building block to their learning? Or is it a stumbling block? This article reports on a study that was conducted in a South African open distance e-learning (ODeL) institution with students who speak English as an additional language, in an Academic Writing module. The study used a qualitative case study approach and drew on the theory of transactional distance to understand how Moodle encourages student interaction and autonomy. Although the study findings cannot be generalised on a broader scale, the findings are in line with similar studies, amplifying the critical role of student experiences, interaction, and autonomy in HEIs to bring about the required change.English Studie

Praxis, Volume 05, No. 01: Diversity in the Writing Center

Subject: A Room of One's Own in the Academy: The Writing Center as a Feminized Space / by Lisa Leit, James Riddlesperger, Ashley Squires, Kanaka Sathasivan, and Justin Smith -- Beyond the Tutorial: Collective Cultures and Shared Grief in the Writing Center / by Emily Walker Heady -- ESL and LD students: Diverse Populations, Common Concerns / by Jane Hirschhorn -- Enhancing Diversity Initiatives through Technology: Writing Center Access from Dallas to Afghanistan / by Rusty Carpenter -- Genre, Diversity, and Disorder in the Writing Center / by Angela Woodward -- Neutral Zone: The Writing Center and the Classroom / by Marjorie Chadwick, Kyung-Hee Bae, Michelle Miley Doss, and Mary Gray -- Not Playing it Safe: Tutoring an Ethic of Diversity within a Non-Diverse Environment / by Andrew Rihn -- The Sense of We Within the I / by Sayantani Dasgupta -- The Writer's Block: Edutainment and Fieldwork Beyond the Walls of the Writing Center / by Diedre Dowling Price -- The Writing Center as Liaison: Retaining L2 Students in Nursing and Other Fields / by Janet M. Lucas -- Writing Centers: Promoting Access in Open Distance Learning / by Mirriam Lephalala and Cathy PienaarUniversity Writing Cente