REGISTRATION
INFORMATION
World University Rankings - Top 600

DUT MIDLANDS DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED MANAGEMENT HOSTED ITS MID-TERM PERFORMANCE REVIEW WORKSHOP

DUT MIDLANDS DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED MANAGEMENT HOSTED ITS MID-TERM PERFORMANCE REVIEW WORKSHOP

The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Midlands Department of Applied Management recently hosted its Mid-Term Performance Review Workshop at Pietermaritzburg Ascot Inn.

The workshop was attended by the Applied Management Head of Department (HOD): Professor Bongani Dlamini, the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) Academic Development Practitioner: Dr Serathi Molokwane and Applied Management staff.

The programme was facilitated by the Public Relations lecturer, Ms Ntokozo Ndlela who also presented on Cooperate Communications which is one of the modules she teaches.

“Online learning is such a huge challenge, but we all need to adjust and find better ways of assisting our students to excel academically. To assist the students to excel in the modules that I am teaching, there is a postgraduate student who is tutoring the third-year students twice a week. This method has really helped a lot on the academic performance of students,” said Ndlela.

Prof Dlamini welcomed everyone who had attended the workshop and unpacked the purpose of the day.

“The purpose of this workshop is to evaluate the staff of Applied Management on their 2021 first semester academic performance, present pass rates for 2020 and compare it with 2021, engage on teaching, learning and assessment strategies, and most importantly to learn from each other’s challenges in relation to working and teaching online in the academic year 2020,” said Prof Dlamini.

Pictured: Applied Management Head of Department (HOD): Professor Bongani Dlamini doing his presentation at the workshop.

Dr Molokwane presented the teaching, learning and assessment focusing on cognitive learning, behaviorism learning, constructive learning and humanism learning theories and various purposes of assessment in higher education which were unpacked on the importance of formative, summative and sustainable assessments.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has enforced the introduction of Online Learning and Assessment across all the Institutions of Higher Learning. This situation requires academics to revisit the issue of Authentic Assessment to maintain the high quality and validity of assessment tasks. It is significant for lecturers to understand that each student is unique in their ways of learning and approach similar environment and psychologists have spent innumerable hours performing tests to better understand how students learn and the above-mentioned theories may be utilised by educators to enhance students’ learning experiences and enrich learning environments for all students,” emphasised Dr Molokwane.

Ms Tabisa Qangula, lecturer at the Department of Management Sciences highlighted that the experience of online learning for the first semester of 2021 was better than in 2020.

“Last year, it was very tough but through a lot of training sessions offered by different departments, we managed to find better ways of teaching, learning and assessing students. I noticed that first-year students had a terrible experience because everything was done online, from registration, getting timetables and attending classes, however, we managed to find assistance and support to conquer those challenges,” said Qangula

Lecturer, Dr Luther Zogli, in his presentation discussed and outlined the challenges and solutions of online teaching.

“Students needs to familiarise themselves with the E-Learning platforms and it is also important for lecturers to have knowledge of the apps and programmes built into Microsoft Teams which can be used to enhance student engagement and attendance,” explained Dr Zogli.

Pictured: Department of Applied Management staff at the Mid-Term Performance Review Workshop.

Zanele Mashaba

No comments