Online delivery and Onscreen marking, will it make the semester system work?

1. Semesters, ODL and
Onscreen Marking

2. Online delivery and
Onscreen marking, will it
make the semester
system work?
NO!

3. Realities – Online Delivery
• Students
– do not read!
– do not have regular access on their computers
– do not have bandwidth
– do not have enough time

4. Students do not READ!
- 4 SMS’s
- 10 E-mails
- 3 Tutorial
- 3 SMS’s
Letters
-
- 4 E-mails
2 Discussion
- 1 Tutorial Letter
Forums
- 1 Discussion
Forum

5. Students do not have enough time
A module is run over a semester of 14 weeks, and 2 hours is
deducted from the notional hours for the exam. The time
students will need to spend on a module will thus be as follows:
• 118 (hours) ÷ 14 (weeks) = 8 ½ hours per week per module
• 8 ½ (hours) ÷ 7 (days) = 1 ½ hours per day per module
• Unisa “forces” students to register for 5 modules per
semester
7 ½ hours per day studying!

6. Realities – Online Design
• Lecturers
– are subject experts not online design specialist
– receive very little support from DCLD for online
design
– do not know available tools
– do not have enough time

7. Realities – Online Presentation
• myUnisa
– not intuitive and user friendly
– ICT decides what goes and what not, not the
academics
– slow and unresponsive even when running on
Unisa network

8. Realities - Onscreen Marking
• External Marker Contracts
– Departments start September HR start March
– Need for activation by HR
– Linking on Maintain Staff
• Hardware
– Only runs on 64 bit Windows Machines

9. Realities – Onscreen Marking
• Marking Software
– Adobe Professional – licensing issues
– Only loaded on campus by ICT
• Submission
– Un-specified documents not blocked
– File size indicated as 1MB
– Submission don’t close until final submission date

10. Realities – Onscreen Marking
• Router
– Must be linked on myUnisa
– Training to use the router
– Bandwidth for downloading files
– Compensation for downloading (R27 p assignment)
– Testing on large numbers (assignments + markers)
– Contingency plan?